Forgiveness
by Seph4evr
Summary: Inspired by SE's discarded idea of having Sephiroth be Aerith's first initial love interest that would buy flowers from her before they replaced him with Zack. Game/CC/Movie setting. Z/A S/A C/A Please R/R! ***might redo at a later date***
1. The Flower Girl

**Forgiveness**

_**Purely fan made all rights to Square Enix for the characters. This was originally going to be a one shot but got pretty long so I'm breaking it down to chapters. Please enjoy!**_

**The Flower Girl**

Aerith knelt in her church in the Slums, clutching the small white materia her mother had left her. Cloud stood stoic not far away as she chanted the spell of Holy to counteract the dark angel who she knew would be on his way this very moment. Her hands were clasped before her in prayer as she went through the spell. She could feel her ancestor's energies thrum around her, through her, empowering her to do what she was born to do. But her heart, although bursting with pride and hope for her friends to be able to continue on and complete their mission after what was going to happen, ached with sadness. Not for her own fate that had to happen but for him.

Her heart belonged to few men, two of them SOLDIER that she knew personally. One had passed a long time ago at the hands of the company that trained him and the other was bound to a destiny of darkness and demise. She looked over at the stoic 'SOLDIER' standing in front of her and she wished she could tell him that everything would be alright, he had been her body guard for a while now and the next moments would pain him although he would be powerless to stop it. He hated the man she loved while he had adored her first love. He had adored the dark angel at one point along with her first love as well, but that was history when her love was consumed with hatred for ShinRa at his creation. If only she could have made things turn out differently, but she couldn't. A single tear glided down her cheek as the distant memories she had kept in the back of her thoughts and the bottom of her heart began to emerge.

Sephiroth arrived at the church of the Slums and looked down at the pretty flower girl in pink as she knelt directly below him. Masamune sang in his hand for her blood. It knew as well as he did that for him to lead the Planet to Paradise that she had to be stopped before her special Holy spell could be cast. Her blood, her precious innocent blood, had to be spilled by his hand and his hand alone. His pathetic 'Mother' wasn't worthy enough if her 'son' could easily over power her with sheer will power alone. His mint green Mako eyes clouded in pain that his heart felt as he remembered her. At the time she was young and naïve, she hadn't even left the clustered confines of Sector 7 aka the Slums. She had been watched over by the Turks and had met that Zack Fair after his confrontation with Angeal and Genesis that revealed that Angeal was an experiment as well as the other First Class SOLDIERs. She had found him when he fell from above after his beating and they had instantly made a connection. Sephiroth himself didn't officially meet the flower girl till much later when Zack was talking about how special she was when he had returned after buying her that pink ribbon and started building flower wagons for the girl. That had piqued the general's interest. Nothing grew in Midgar anymore, especially flowers, it was too polluted. She was special, he had known that she was a half-Cetra, a creature his 'Mother' was claimed to be although it was clear that she was another sort of alien. He had read about it in her files that the slothful President had kept on her as he tried to discover a way to use the kind and caring flower girl as a powerful weapon like Sephiroth, thinking them cut from the same cloth. Sephiroth knew he was something else entirely while they were still offspring from powerful alien life forms although the girl wasn't a killing machine. A faint smile graced his features as he remembered their encounter.

Aerith was tending her flowers when Zack showed up at the church. She heard his heavy leather combat boots as they echoed across the wooden floor of the building and she turned to smile at him over her shoulder. He had his usual grin etched across his face and his sky blue eyes sparkled with his normal happy mood. She finished pulling the last of the weeds and stood to face him. He wrapped her small body in his big muscular arms in a hug that made her laugh.

"Zack! Not so tight! What are you doing here? I thought you had a mission down in the Mines."

He let her down and walked over to look at the beautiful lilies that she grew in the church. "That mission was easy, and we only suffered minor injuries. We got back around noon and filled out the reports. I had the rest of my schedule open and decided to spend it on you!"

She giggled behind her hand. "How sweet of you. Can we go to the Market today? They have a new selection of dresses and I wanted to check them out. You showed up just in time to join me."

The SOLDIER turned back to her and leaned down close to her face. "Maybe…for one kiss. We can make it a date!"

The flower girl turned away from him with a smile and headed out of the church. "It can be a date, but whether you come or not I'm going to look anyway." She sang.

Zack ran after her and matched her pace. "Alright, the kiss can come later."

She giggled and twined her fingers with his gloved ones. "It's a date."

Sephiroth had been monitoring the area in search of any disguised Wutainese spies and just happened to be in Market at that time. He scanned the area behind blue contacts that gave his eyes a pale blue-green hue and under a long rough cotton cloak that hid his unique long silver hair and leather coat. His extra sensitive hearing picked up on all the conversations and so far mostly it was of the local Don's illegal activity. He would deal with the ball of lard later, now was the time for smothering Wutai once and for all to end any chance of another war with the nation. He walked over towards the entrance into the Slums and stopped when he spotted his young friend.

"What's the pup doing here?" he muttered to himself. Then he saw his female companion in a white and blue sun dress.

She was slender and beautiful with dark emerald green eyes and a long dark brown braid down her back. She let go of the puppy's hand and skipped over to one of the stands to a rack of dresses. Her light pink ribbon he remembered Zack had talked about getting her bouncing as she skipped. She admired one of the long pink dresses as well as a light green one the length of the one she was wearing now. He stood there as Zack joined her and they said something about the green dress and ended up getting the long pink one. He crept closer as the girl buried her head in a rack of other garments and pretended to be interested in cotton fiber jacket. He wouldn't put himself through the torture of the itchy fabric but mostly just wanted to get closer to the couple.

"Zack, do you think this jacket would match that dress? It's only ten gil so the total would be twenty-three gil with the dress." She resurfaced with a darker shade of pink jacket with short sleeves.

Zack grabbed the jacket and held it up to her with the dress as she stood with her arms spread beside her. He cocked his head as if deep in thought for a few minutes which drove the tiny brunette insane.

"Come on, Zack! Does it look good on me together or not?" she complained.

He smiled and nodded. "It's just your sandals don't match."

Aerith looked down wide-eyed at her little white and blue wedges. It was true! The wedges matched her current sun dress but not the new dress. "Then if it isn't much trouble…"

"Pick out a new pair." Zack laughed. "I have more than enough gil I'm not spending. I might as well use it for my girlfriend."

"Oh Zack, you don't have to spend in on me." She blushed as she rummaged through the shelf of shoes while comparing them with the pink outfit.

"I want to." Zack replied simply.

Sephiroth frowned at their idle banter. The girl obviously didn't want to be a burden to anyone and the pup was trying to tell her she wasn't at all. How could she be? The poor girl lived in the Slums and gave all she had to those who needed it more. The general had accompanied Tseng or one of the other Turks on enough occasions to see that the girl cared more about her neighbors than herself, even the bad ones.

She pulled out some thick brown leather boots and showed them to the spikey haired SOLDIER. "Here! These match and if I go out to the surface with you I'll be prepared for the dangers up there as well as the ones down here."

Zack smiled and took them and the bundle of clothes to the stands keeper and pulled out his wallet. "How much?"

"Thirty-five gil for the lot." The filthy man replied behind a half burnt cheap cigarette.

Zack pulled own the exact amount and handed it to the man and took the bag he had placed the garments and boots in. "Now you have a whole new outfit, Aerith. Maybe you can where it on our next date."

Aerith giggled and pushed the young SOLDIER lightly. "Oh Zack! That can wait till next time, I'll have to see but right now though I need to get back to the church and my flowers."

Sephiroth slipped back into the sparse crowd and headed towards the large metal door that led to the Slums. He heard Zack as he begged Aerith for that kiss and he looked over his shoulder to see her peck him on the cheek when he leaned down for what he hoped would be on the lips. The girl giggled and began to skip through the crowd. The silver haired SOLDIER flitted across the open paths of the junk heaps of the Slums and slipped into the white church ahead of the two. He sniffed at the potent sweet aroma that he had noticed on the girl, delicate lily. It overwhelmed his senses and his eyes half closed in pleasure as her smiling face popped into his mind's eyes. He stuck to the side of the building and slunk towards the back where the ruined pulpit still stood and crouched in the dark shadows of the corner. When he found that it was still light enough that he would be seen by the enhanced Mako eyes of the younger SOLDIER while not being seen by the flower girl he looked up to the rafters. He jumped with his superior strength that only he possessed and hopped lightly from rafter to rafter until he was near the hole that Zack had fallen through a while back and out of sight of the couple as they walked through the large oak doors of the church.

"Zack, I already gave you a kiss." She sang as she skipped down to her flower patch. She knelt down to tend to the lilies and the young disappointed SOLDIER sat down on a nearby pew.

"That was only a peck on the cheek!" he complained again.

Aerith sighed dramatically and stood to walk over to him. She crossed her arms and pouted at him. "It's still a kiss. You'll just have to wait for another next time." She smiled then and spun away to return to the blossoms.

Zack sighed with a grin and nodded. "Okay, but next time no pecks, got me?" he then started as his phone rang from his pocket. He pulled it out and flipped it open. "It's Tseng…Hello?" he answered.

"I already took care of the Mines…there are more in the deeper levels? Why can't ShinRa just develop the higher levels first? ...Alright, I'm on my way, have the group ready by the time I get there." He pocketed his phone and stood with his hands on his hips. "Sorry Aerith, I have to go on another mission in the Mines. The President wants to go deeper and deeper after every mission, despite the dangers to his men."

The flower girl rose with a worried face and ran up to hug Zack. "Be careful, I worry about you."

He kissed the top of her head and returned her hug. "I can handle myself. It's just the other guys I have to stress to get home alive. Pray for us?"

She nodded and smiled weakly as he turned and left to return back to base. She wrapped her arms around her waist and sat on the pew where the SOLDIER sat seconds before, her eyes focusing on her toes. She didn't hear the silent descent of the inhuman general as he softly jumped from his perch to land quietly beside the flowers. He shed his cloak and the movement caught the flower girl's eye.

She looked up and froze as the tall SOLDIER smiled down at her. Her insides flip-flopped and her cheeks blushed a rosy color. "H…Hello?"

"You're Aerith I presume? I'm Sephiroth."

"The general of ShinRa's Army? What are you doing in the Slums?" she asked both confused and flustered that the mighty and scary general was in her church.

"I heard you can make flowers grow and had to see them for myself. I've only seen you when on surveillance in this Sector and wanted to know if it was true and had to meet you personally." He held out a gloved hand to help her up from the pew. He smiled warmly as the scared girl slowly took his hand and allowed herself to be pulled back into a standing position.

She walked past him while keeping her big eyes on him and knelt back down in front of her flowers. The big SOLDIER knelt beside her and studied her as she tended the flowers delicately. He started when he felt an unknown power thrum through the earth through the girl and to the plants. She was using some kind of power of the Ancients he had heard about from that insane scientist Hojo and she was completely unaware of it. He reached for the same power and could only barely sense it. He gently touched her arm causing her to pause but he felt the power and could now recognize it. He let her go and felt her questioning eyes on him as he softly stroked one of the lilies and summoned the ancient power of the Planet. The flower swayed softly in response and the girl gasped.

"How did you do that? The flowers only like it when I tend them!" she wasn't jealous or angry, only mystified and curious.

He thought back to how Hojo had raised him within SOLDIER to be the perfect weapon and how they believed he possessed some of the amazing abilities of the Ancient Cetra. He could only barely grasp what they meant and he just figured it was what made SOLDIERs special with the Mako, just another added affect that some picked up.

"I'm not sure…I know that I sensed you using some kind of power unconsciously from the Planet. It was a warm and pleasant energy that the Planet readily responded to. I couldn't quite grab hold of it until I touched you and could recognize the energies directly then try again for myself. Apparently it worked." He smiled down at the still flustered girl.

"I was using a power from the Planet? How could I use a power without knowing it?" she asked him, looking down at the earth between the flowers with new interest.

"You know what you are." He stated.

She nodded. "Is that why they kept me in ShinRa with my mother a while ago?"

So she remembered. She had been so young when she was raised in a lab in the lower levels of the ShinRa building. But her mother had gotten her out and to the home she was at in the Slums. Of course that traumatic experience would stay with her, her mother had died after all in the effort.

He nodded. "And why they still watch over you. So your gift doesn't get harmed by the filth of their world. Kinda ironic in my opinion."

The small girl nodded. "Is that why you're here?"

He looked down in surprise into her large green eyes. She was serious. She thought he was spying on her for the slobs of Shinra. He quickly shook his head, sending his long sliver bangs flying across his face so that he had to straighten them with his gloved fingers. The girl laughed and helped comb through his silver locks.

"I wasn't accusing you, silly, just curious. I occasionally see guys in nice suits or girls in nice suits when I go out and they sometimes see I spotted them and they quickly act like they were just looking at merchandise in that store but sometimes the girls end up looking through a window at a shop for men only." She giggled. "They don't even realize it until they realize there's nothing there but men clothes and their faces get all red. But I look like I didn't notice a thing so they don't feel that bad hopefully."

"You don't like others to feel bad, do you?" Sephiroth asked as she finished combing his bangs and folded her hands in her lap.

She shook her head, her own bangs shaking across her face. "No, I don't, and usually people from SOLDIER scare me because they love fighting and hurting people. I know that they're told to for the war and to protect the city from monsters, but they love it too much."

Sephiroth blushed slightly as he remembered that he himself relished in battle, his blood hungry sword an extension of death of his own body. He had been raised to kill and kill alone so that fewer lives were lost and morale raised for the ShinRa company.

The flower girl placed her small hands on his and smiled up at him. "I know you and Zack are in SOLDIER and I know that's why they have those pretty blue eyes, and that it's why you have your beautiful green eyes. Is it also why you have silver hair?"

He shook his head. "I was born with silver hair, I don't know why it's this color but I assume it has something to do with my mother. I never knew her. I only know she died while giving birth to me."

She wrapped her arms around him comfortingly. He then realized that he had needed that comfort for a long time and for some reason he had never wanted from other people, but he wanted it from her. She nestled her head against his bare chest and whispered, her breath tickling his skin. "She loved you though, even though she knew what you were to become by your father's hand. She still cares for you."

Aerith left out the part of Lucrecia, who she would sometimes talk to during the twilight hours in the church, being sad for the Planet too for what she would hint at to the young flower girl. She didn't know exactly what the scientist had meant by the riddles she sometimes spoke so why worry the giant general about what might me just a mother's worries? She felt him wrap his strong arms around her and she gasped when she realized they were stronger and more muscular than Zack's. She didn't think they could get any bigger for any man.

The next day he visited her again as she neared the church. She looked up from her feet and was surprised to see the long haired man leaning against the church's outer wall.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have a mission? Zack's always being called away on missions." She asked as she climbed the steps up to him.

He opened the door for her and grinned. "I kinda want to tend the flowers again. Their smell is intoxicating."

She smiled and walked through the door and down the aisle of pews to the patch of yellow and white plants. "I guess I can use the extra muscle for such a daunting chore." She joked.

He followed her and they knelt amongst the delicate plants. Aerith began to cup the buds of the blossoms in her hand and watched as he stroked another's petals. She giggled and stopped him.

"Here, they like it better when you touch them directly." She took his hands in hers and gently removed his black leather gloves. She looked up at his face and studied his reaction as his eyes widened slightly then clouded over at her touch of skin on skin. She guided his bare, long fingers to the same flower and he did notice a stronger reaction from the plant. "See! It likes you. Hehehe."

She giggled at her little small joke behind her hand and continued to tend the other flowers, all the while watching the tall handsome man beside her tend the others. He was careful with them, and she could sense their strong acceptance of him. She recognized that now as her Cetra power that he had mentioned the previous evening and marveled at how they welcomed his gentle touch. They were usually nonchalant, if plants could be nonchalant, about other people besides Aerith. She smiled as she saw a happy smile spread across his elegant features. His straight nose and defined cheekbones cast a beauty about his face that his unique cat-like eyes tied his angelic features together.

Sephiroth smiled down at the fragile plants he caressed with his bare fingers. They thrummed under his touch and he responded equally to their feel. The petals were soft and the leaves like soft leather. He couldn't help but feel happy, a feeling he rarely felt anymore since Genesis had been acting weird before his abandonment of SOLDIER and Angeal joining him. He missed the brief good times he had shared with the two country boys before the war slowly tore them apart. Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned slightly to see the small girl smile up at him before looking back at the flowers beneath her. He noticed that she was not unlike the flowers she took so much care of, slim and delicate with a unique beauty that radiated a feeling of calm happiness to the surrounding area. They were like a tiny ray of brilliant light that refused to be snuffed out by the gloom and darkness of ShinRa's presence.

They continued to meet day after day, Zack still in action in the Mines, continuing his descent deeper and deeper to the President's greedy intentions. Sephiroth didn't mind although Aerith worried about his welfare.

"I just can't help but worry about him, Sephiroth. He's not as big and strong as you." She told the general as they watched some Slum children play on the play equipment in the park.

He raised a thin silvery eyebrow at her. "I know he's strong, and a First Class, but he told me the monsters are getting much stronger than before every time he goes deeper some places. I guess I'm just scared that he won't come back and…that I'll never know about it."

"Aerith, you're a Cetra. You have already heard the dead haven't you? Your Ancient ancestors will tell you if Zack were to pass in action." He assured her.

She frowned still and studied a young boy who chased another shouting how he was the mighty General Sephiroth. She smiled slightly at this and looked over at the general. "That boy is pretending to be you. He even has a stick in place of your Masamune."

He looked over at the group of boys and picked up on their conversations. They were pretending to be all the famous SOLDIERs: himself, Genesis, Angeal and even Zack. They fought over who got to be the SOLDIERs and who had to be Wutai spies or Dons. He smiled and laughed at the children. "They have high hopes for their future. The President would no doubt be ecstatic for their devotion for his means in the future."

Aerith nodded thoughtfully. "Do you think that if they do join ShinRa that they'd be good at what they did? Would they have a chance at living through it?"

Sephiroth glanced down at her eyes darkened with worry and nodded. "With that kind of enthusiasm they'd do great. Most of our current men die because they choose to no longer live. Most of them commit suicide because they were drafted or forced in by their parents and they can't handle the responsibility or stress that comes with the job. We revive some with the Revive materia but if they're dead for too long then it has no effect sadly. But they don't have the drive like those children apparently have." This seemed to please the flower girl greatly.

"You'd protect them though, as their mentor, wouldn't you?" she looked up at him with those large innocent eyes and he couldn't even think of saying no. He nodded his head and laughed softly as she jumped up and down and clapped her hands once in front of her with a huge grin on her face. "Yay!"

In truth, Sephiroth would always try and do his best in watching over new recruits in to the ShinRa Army whether they join SOLDIER or the Infantry. He had the ability to save lives so he did everything in his power to do so.

They headed back to the church and Aerith turned abruptly to him as he was about to leave her to her nightly checking of the plants before she headed home. He knew a Turk was somewhere like always to guide her home safely, tonight in particular the ever silent Rude although he was currently waiting behind a heap of rubble since the general was with her. She climbed a few more steps so she was eye to eye level with him and leaned down to quickly brush her lips against his. His eyes widened in surprise at the sudden action, not that he hadn't thought about doing that very thing to the pretty girl on more than one occasion.

She giggled with her hands clasped behind her back nervously. "I've wanted to do that for some time now."

He smiled at her. "Me too."

She unclasped her hands to raise them joyfully. "Then you aren't angry!" she simply radiated with joy only to dim in worry. "But what about Zack? When he gets back…"

He waved his hand. "Don't worry, it will be our little secret. I hear you're going to start selling the flowers once he makes you a wagon to carry them?"

"Yes. He says, 'Midgar full of flowers, wallet full of money.' I can't wait for him to get back and start making it, I'm sure it will be amazing." She grinned then waved goodbye. "I'll see you around." She sang as she skipped into the church.

Sephiroth walked down the stairs with a lazy smile and waved in greeting to Rude who nodded in acknowledgement. He had met the woman of his dreams, the only one who had ever grabbed and held his attention. He returned to base and retired to bed with a content smile on his face as he relived the moment her lips brushed against his over and over and saw her shining emerald eyes shining up at him as he made her laugh and smile in happiness. He wanted to always make her laugh and smile like that forever. The only thing that stood in his way was a certain spikey haired SOLDIER First Class.

Zack arrived back from his missions in the Mines after finally clearing them of all possible threats. Sephiroth restrained himself from his usual daily visits with Aerith to every other day for the evening when Zack would head back to base so that he could help tend the flowers. He found enjoyment in watching Zack run all around the Slums then the base and Sector 5 for parts and building materials until he had made a poor looking (yet cute) flower wagon, a machine looking wagon and finally a high grade adorable flower wagon that Aerith fell in love with. He especially enjoyed the part when the scientist tried to buy the machine looking wagon to use to develop a new weapon for ShinRa. Aerith had thought about it but only to peeve Zack saying, "Maybe we should fill our pocket with money before we fill Midgar with flowers." Zack had looked rather beaten up until she reassured him she was only kidding. The leather clad warrior had slipped into the park when Zack was advertising her flowers and he smiled down at her.

"Hello Aerith, the flowers look exceptional today."

She grinned up at him and nodded. "They're happy that you're here too, you know. They've been missing your daily tending. I guess I just don't cut it anymore alone."

Sephiroth leaned down to inhale the sweet aroma of the blossoms and smiled at the welcoming energies they emitted. "Why don't I buy a few and take them back to my apartment to brighten things up a little, how about two dozen?"

The flower girl smiled and clapped her hands in approval. "Of course! That would be 5 gill a piece so…120 gil total."

Sephiroth grinned as he accepted the flowers she had tied together with a thin pink ribbon and handed her 200 gil. "Keep the change." He winked at her as she pocketed the money happily and waved at him.

He slipped away just as Zack returned with three new customers who decided they'd buy a few flowers for the asking price and heard Aerith complaining to him after the customers had made their purchase.

"Zack, I really don't mind how much money we make, I'm just happy to spread the joy the flowers give. Can't we lower the price a little? We might get more customers that way."

Zack sighed. "Aerith, we already had this discussion. We can sell them for whatever you want though, as long as you're happy."

Aerith looked up at Zack then shifted her gaze past his shoulder to see Sephiroth just outside the park. She clasped her hands in front of her and smiled. "I'm happy as long as I'm spending time with you."

_**Please R/R =)**_


	2. The Reactor

**Forgiveness**

_**Purely fan made all rights to Square Enix for the characters.**_

**The Reactor**

Their next mission sent Sephiroth and Zack into Nebilheim to check that the reactor was alright. Every SOLDIER was being deployed to every other reactor as well. When they arrived and checked into the Inn Sephiroth looked over his shoulder as Zack pulled back away from the group as his phone rang. He listened into the conversation to know that it was Aerith wondering when Zack would be back. He looked down at his own phone and found he wanted it to ring and to answer it to hear her voice calling to see when he'd be back. He frowned when Zack hung up, not even talking to her for more than a minute, granted they were on a mission although they weren't going to be doing anything until tomorrow. She was worried about _that_ when he was talking with that Turk Cissnei and just about every accountant in the ShinRa building. He didn't deserve her worry although he did care enough about her to make her flower wagons and visit her when he could. Sephiroth shook his head. She deserved all the attention that could be given to any woman. Taking a steadying breath the general went up to his room in the Inn and flipped out his phone and typed out a message after selecting Aerith's number he had acquired that first week they had first met in her flower filled church.

'How are things going Aerith? We've arrived in Nebilheim but won't be doing anything until later tomorrow so it's fairly boring. We are out under a clear mountain sky but other than that it is gray rocky terrain with little plant life and void of flowers. I might try to coax some out for the local women. Do you think they would continue to grow when I left?'

He pressed the send button and waited for a reply. He studied the off white plaster roof of his room for what seemed to be hours but was in reality only a few minutes when the soft tone sounded from his phone. He flipped it open to see it was Aerith's reply. He didn't know how much he was hoping she would reply until he smiled and his heart raced in his chest. He opened the message.

'Seph! You really have time to talk? Aren't you always busy on your missions? Zack barely ever has time to call, he says. Can I call you then, or you call me? I like to hear the sound of your voice when I'm talking to you. It helps me get a visual of your face. '

He grinned down at the smiley face she had keyed in and pressed the call button before raising the phone to his ear as she quickly answered.

"Sephy, it's so good to hear from you! Do you really have time to talk?" she chirped.

He smiled. "Yes I do, missions are actually boring unless it's a battle engagement."

"Oh…so the fighting is fun? I don't think I could fight like SOLDIER do."

"I'm sure you'd be the best. You're so caring you'd either only stun your opponent or talk it out of the fight unless you had to then I'm sure you'd make it painless."

He heard her giggle nervously. "Do you do that?"

"For the most part, yes. If I only hacked everything to ribbons without knowing if it was necessary or not I wouldn't be a very good Hero of the public. But usually it has to end with painless killing sadly." He confirmed.

"Zack told me the fighting was an order from the President, but he's not a very nice guy, is he?"

Sephiroth thought for a moment, choosing his words wisely. "No, he isn't. He doesn't care who or what gets in his way of his climb to more power as long as he has the abilities to take care of them he does."

"Are you the one who takes care of the 'who or what'?" she asked innocently.

"I am the best weapon at his disposal." He answered her dryly. He was rather ashamed of his role under the current President ShinRa, ever since that resistance leader had asked him to question why he fought. He remembered Zack had been complaining to his buddies before he became First about how a guy off the street questioned his reason for fighting. What did they fight for except that they were told to do so by their boss and in order to protect their country from others according to the propaganda that was forced down their throats? He realized that he not only fought for the power hungry sloth that was the President but for preserving what little innocence was untainted by his filth, like Aerith. "But I refuse to only be his killing pet that always waits on his bloodthirsty commands. I fight so that he doesn't reach out to the innocents that have remained untouched by his company for now so that they remain that way."

"Like me?" she asked. He could hear her grinning in the tone of her voice.

"Yes, just like you. And every person out there that might still be a pure as you." He laughed.

"You're the knight of Midgar in your leather armor and long silver hair, Sephiroth." She sang.

They talked like that until it was time for them to sleep, sharing laughs and all around having a great time. Sephiroth heard Zack clomp to his room across the hall and listened in on his conversation with that blond trooper.

"Cloud, why don't you just take off the helmet? This is your hometown after all." He was complaining, not for the first time that day either.

"I don't want to talk about it…" was the Infantryman's quiet reply.

"Whatever…weirdo. Oh well, we better get some sleep for the reactor tomorrow. Night buddy!"

He heard the two of them lie down on the cheap beds and closed his own eyes. A smile crept across his face as his dreams were filled of a certain petite flower girl.

They headed out to the reactor the next afternoon after receiving a tour from a local guide who showed them the mountainous trails that were littered with monstrous birds and Bombs and the area's natural Mako pits. She was left outside with Cloud while Zack and Sephiroth went to check the facility. The first thing they saw as they wandered through the dark room was dark pods lining the stairs to the main door. Sephiroth looked up at the locked door and froze. The sign above it read JENOVA. Zack noticed it too and remembered that the general had mentioned upon entering the city that his mother was named Jenova and had died during childbirth. They younger SOLDIER slowly connected the dots and stepped back with a gasp, looking to the hero to see if he too had noticed. But Sephiroth had already moved on to the matter at hand. A section was out so Zack was sent to seal the valve, apparently that was the problem.

"Why did it break?"

Sephiroth walked over to another pod and peeked closer into its liquid contents and sneered in disgust. Zack, curious as to what he was so disgusted about, looked in after him, pressing his face against the glass just as bubbles shot up to reveal a monster inside not unlike the ones he had slain deep in the Mines.

"What is that?" he gasped.

"You average SOLDIER members are Mako infused humans. You're enhanced but you're still human." Sephiroth answered. "But then, what are those things?" he continued. "Their Mako energy levels are exponentially higher than yours."

"Are they… monsters?"

Sephiroth walked away from the pod to the middle of that platform. "Yes. The ShinRa scientist Hojo was the one who created them. Abominations spawned by Mako energy… that's what monsters are."

Zack thought for a moment then asked. "You said 'average' member. What about you?"

Sephiroth didn't know the answer to that. He gasped and staggered away as his head throbbed. He cradled it in his gloved hands. Zak came forward to help the tall SOLDIER but was roughly and blindly shoved away so that he jumped down to the lower platform.

"Hey, Sephiroth!"

The general considered the possibilities. Hojo had raised him with those constant tests, injections, samples and was always monitoring what he did. "Could it be… that I… was created the same way? Am I the same as these monsters? I knew ever since I was a child, I was not like the others…I knew mine was a special existence. But this…this was not what I meant." He tentatively raised his hands to inspect them as if they would protrude claws at any moment. "Am I…a human being?"

"No such luck. You are a monster."

Zack yelled as he was blasted by a Fire materia while Sephiroth was able to form his Wall in time.

"Sephiroth," Genesis said with a small smile. "You were the greatest monster created by the Jenova Project."

"Genesis… so you are alive!" Zack accused.

Genesis turned to the younger First Class. "I suppose I am, if you can call this living." He indicated his degrading body.

Sephiroth brought him back to the current issue. "What is the Jenova Project?" he had to know more.

"The Jenova Project was the term used for all experiments relating to the use of Jenova's cells." Genesis answered.

"My mother's…cells?" Sephiroth asked, not quite understanding.

"Poor little Sephiroth… you've never actually met your mother. You've only been told her name, no? I don't know what images you've conjured in your head, but…"

Zack cried out from his fetal position on the base floor, "Genesis, no!" he was catching on to what the sealed door hid.

"Jenova was excavated from a two-thousand-year-old rock layer. She's a monster." He confirmed smugly. As Sephiroth struggled to accept this new twist of maternal information, Genesis pressed, "Sephiroth, I need your help. My body is continuing to degrade…" when Sephiroth didn't face him he commanded, "SOLDIER First Class, Sephiroth! Jenova Project G gave birth to Angeal and monsters like myself. Jenova Project S…"

Zack was recovering on the floor and mused aloud, "S… ?"

Genesis continued without acknowledging the short interruption. "…used the remains of countless failed experiments to create a perfect monster."

Sephiroth shook his head and sneered. "What do you want of me?"

Genesis explained. "Your traits cannot be copied unto others, your genes can't be defused. Therefore, your body cannot degrade." He walked forward to stand a few feet from his old friend. "Share your cells with me." He then began to recite a verse from _Loveless_, "_My friend, your desire is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess_." He held forth a Banora White apple as Sephiroth slowly turned to face him.

The silver haired swordsman looked back up at the plate reading JENOVA and the image of the de-podded monster flashed over his vision. "Whether your words are lies created to deceive me, or the truth that I have sought for all my life… It makes no difference." He swatted the apple out of his former friends extended hand. "You will rot."

The astonished Genesis clutched his hands to his chest as Sephiroth made his way to the door. "I see, perfect monster indeed. _When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end, the goddess descends from the sky. Wings of light and dark spread afar, she guides us to bliss…her gift everlasting_."

Zack struggled to his feet and staggered after him as he headed out the door as well. "No, stop!"

They stopped by the ShinRa Manor and the long abandoned building piqued the general's interest as well as the pup's. By the smell of the place it was infested with the pumpkin headed ghost-like monsters and beetle monsters that were easily disposable. Sephiroth sensed something off about the library and went to look around there while Zack nosed around peeking through the keyholes of the locked doors and could be later heard fiddling with an apparently pesky safe.

Sephiroth poked and prodded the rounded protruding stone wall and was only slightly surprised when it slid into itself revealing a doorway. He sniffed the somewhat stale damp air from within and let the secret passage breath for a minute before stepping cautiously in to see it was a round area that led down to a ladder that led even further down into the ground. He slowly descended into the inky shadows and peered around at the dank brick walls. By the manacles attached to chains draped around the perimeter, he was standing in a dungeon of sorts. He carefully walked along its edge, avoiding the open area and crumbly pillars, passing bolted iron doors that led into cells where he could see various numbers of coffins in each although they were locked tight. Masamune would've replaced any key that opened them but they didn't hold his interest for him to consider slashing the metal so he continued on until he came to a softer scene. He spotted shelves filled with books lining the walls of the final room and pulled out his Firaga materia to light the torches so he could find his way carefully into the room and give it a warmer glow. He turned on the desk lamp in the middle of the room and ran a gloved hand along the spines of the many books and selected one that stood out to his sensitive touch. _The Ancient Race: Cetra_ read its title. Wasn't Aerith Cetra? Maybe he could learn more about her and tell her since she was equally unaware of her ancestry.

He flipped through the pages and after many hours of reading he found records of how the Cetra fought a battle with a monster that was infesting their race. Was it Jenova? Was his mother's name and the monster that plagued the world the one and the same or only a coincidence? They were finally able to seal the creature away but their kind were now few and eventually there were none left as the humans populated and became many. Then, a Professor Ghast discovered what he believed to be a Cetra in stone. They took the creatures cells and began using them in experiments to resurrect the Ancients once more. He had named her Jenova. Ghast had helped raise Sephiroth but had died at some point. Was he connected to Aerith in some way?

Sephiroth paused. Hojo had told him that his mother was named Jenova and had died while giving birth to him. Were they the same. At that point Zack stepped into the light panting slightly. There had been scuffling noises outside, apparently some of the amphibious, beetle and pumpkin like monsters had been awakened from their slumber and attacked the young SOLDIER. No doubt surprising him in the process. Sephiroth hardly looked up at him as he recited some of the texts he had read so far. And so far there was no mention of Aerith, only resulting monsters.

"Go away, I just want to be alone…" he told the youth who thankfully obeyed. Sephiroth was becoming overburdened with revelations that he wasn't sure what he was capable of anymore. He didn't want to harm anyone if it became too much for him, he needed to find out _more_.

His phone beeped occasionally but he was too busy reading for that first week. Then when he had finished one of them tomes and the phone sounded he answered it.

"Hello?"

"Finally! Seph, where are you?" it was Aerith.

"Still in Nebilheim, we're just monitoring the reactor for now I suppose. We haven't been called back."

"What else have you been doing? Neither you or Zack have been answering my calls or messages… I was worried." He could hear her pouting her pale pink lips.

He grinned. "Are you really worried about me?"

"Yes, of course. Anything can happen."

"I am more than able to take care of myself, Zack however I'm not so sure about. He was easily surprised the other day by a simple Fire attack."

"So what have you been doing? Are you both really busy?"

He wanted to tell her everything but couldn't bear to imagine what she might think of him as a perfect monster compiled from countless failed experiments. "I don't know about the others but I've been reading in this vast library at the Manor a little ways from the outskirts of town."

"You haven't planted any flowers?" she asked innocently.

"There are some in the outskirts of town where the only fertile soil could be found. I don't even think you'd be able to keep flowers happy here." She giggled and he laughed.

"What are you reading about?"

He thought for a long moment. "ShinRa history and the Cetra race."

"Did you find anything interesting?" she asked eagerly.

"Not entirely. Apparently though, there are few on the Planet now, you being one of them." If he deduced properly from his research, Jenova had been one as well only put to sleep. At least if the records of Ghast were correct. Therefore, he was a product of recreating the Cetra while Aerith was a natural born Cetra. There was still the eluded topic of the Promised Land that only the Cetra race could lead one to. Maybe they could live there happily together…without Zack or Genesis.

"Well okay then, will you call me later?" she asked sweetly.

"You bet." He smiled and they disconnected.

He returned to his reading for many weeks after that. No one came to see him and he didn't talk to anyone besides his chatting with Aerith from time to time.

Then one day, he snapped. If all the information was correct then his mother was an Ancient being like the Cetra. He exited the library and made his way back to town. It was quiet, no one was out and about yet as it was the late evening at this point. He drew Masamune and pulled out his Firaga materia with a sadistic smile creeping across his lips. He will burn the town of ShinRa to the ground and free his mother so that she can reclaim the Planet as her own like she had tried two thousand years ago. They will take the Planet as a vessel to the Promised Land and make humanity suffer for trapping her and killing the other Ancient beings.

He shot the fire attack at the rows of buildings surrounding the high water tower before shooting that with the orange heat as well. He laughed maniacally as the smell of burning wood and ash filled the air and cinders. Men, women and children rushed out of their blazing homes as they gave in. Screams of pain, remorse and death could be heard in the air. The song in his mad symphony of death and destruction but only the Interlude to the oncoming masterpiece. He slashed out Masamune, the long sharp blade an extension of death, spilling the townspeople's crimson blood upon the cobble stones and brick walls. He neared a man who was backing away. The man looked up at him as the blood streaked Masamune angled in the air, preparing to strike. It was the man with the camera who had waited for Sephiroth earlier that month to make his appearance in the town for money. The fool would die tonight.

"Why…why are you doing this?" he cried as he feebly staggered backwards before Sephiroth grinned evilly and slashed his blade across his torso. He fell to the ground, his glassy brown eyes staring blankly up at the smoke filled sky along with many others.

Why was he doing this? What had these people in particular done? Nothing. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that was why they died. He noticed that some had crawled to some burned out buildings reduced to ashes and unmarred stone buildings. He wanted them all to die but something stopped him. The same thing that urged him to kill all those innocents. Mother. Her conscious was barely a twinge in the back of his mind as her body and mind were still asleep, but she could sense her offspring, could impress what he needed to do.

"I'm coming to get you…" he made his way to the stairway that led to the outskirts of town then on to the reactor past the Manor. He would retrieve Mother…free her so they could claim the world together and remake the world in their glorious image. And Aerith's. She had her birthright to join them in the Promised Land. He would claim her as well.

As he neared the stairs to the trail he turned to see Zack standing there. His face was screwed up in pain and disbelief. He didn't want to necessarily hurt the pup, he had become quite close to him as a matter of fact. He would ask him after he freed Mother to stop seeing Aerith and chase that Turk girl. She liked him too. He smiled at the frightened youth and looked past him with satisfaction at that Cloud boy who had tried to stop him earlier but was now unconscious on the stones. He turned and walked through the flames unscathed as they danced around his coat and body, not daring to touch their master.

He heard Zack turn back to help some more of the locals and he continued down the trail. As the reactor came into view over the rocks he noticed another figure by the stairs leading into the reactor. He grinned zealously, another victim for Masamune. He licked the blade as the man spread himself in front of the path into the reactor. The metallic taste of blood filled his senses and his cat-like eyes sharpened for the kill, his pupil dilating to a slit as he focused on the mans exposed body. He was still a good distance away but he materialized right in front of the man. The man's cinnamon brown eyes widened in fear then all light faded after Masamune lashed out at his torso, neck and midsection. He fell in a gasping heap but was still alive. He would leave him to die. Sephiroth left Masamune in the earth by the crumpled body and entered the reactor. As he climbed the stairs to the sealed door he was stroking it almost lovingly with his gloved fingertips, fantasizing his life in the Promised Land with Aerith and Mother when he heard labored breathing from tears and booted foot falls on the metal stairs below him.

"Sephiroth! How dare you kill my father and everyone in the village!"

He whirled around as his own weapon was coming down to meet him and caught his assailant's wrist, lifting the wiggling girl up off her feet. His long fingers tightened around the hilt as she looked at him with fiery cinnamon brown eyes filled with pure hatred. Her eyes widened in terror as he smiled and twisted his wrist skillfully and slashed across her chest. She fell back and tumbled down the many stairs into a twisted heap of tears and blood on the base platform. Sephiroth returned to the sealed door. She mumbled something as he opened the door and made his way up the heavy tubing to a concealed cell. There was a full metal body covering that hid her form from view. He heard the door break as a heavy blade slashed through the thick metal, the annoying puppy, no doubt. Zack's foot falls echoed throughout the chamber but Sephiroth didn't take his eyes of his beloved Mother.

"Mother, let's take back the Planet together." He cooed. "I… I had an epiphany. Let's go to the Promised Land, Mother."

"Sephiroth!" the annoying puppy indeed. "Why did you kill the townspeople? Why did you hurt Tifa? Answer me. Sephiroth!"

The silver haired SOLDIER just laughed at his foolish questions. The only important question he should be asking is why he didn't destroy them all in one fell swoop, he knew the youth knew that he could do it.

"Mother," he informed her. "They're here again. You should have ruled this Planet. You were stronger, smarter, but then they came. Those inferior dullards, they came and took this planet away from you. But don't be sad Mother, don't worry, I am with you now." He reached up to remove the metal angel figure covering her cell pod. He ripped the figure away and the wires that kept the creature beneath it alive snapped and fizzled as oil dribbled out. He looked lovingly at the silver haired female creature within the liquid with glowing purple eyes.

"We meet at last… Mother."

A buster blade sidled up to his neck, only slightly drawing his attention.

"Sephiroth! Have you completely lost your mind?" Zack asked.

Sephiroth paused for a moment and Zack grew worried, he could smell the youth's fear rolling off his skin. "You traitor…" he accused. He whipped his blade around so that Zack had to hurry to block the deadly katana from cleaving his torso in two. He hadn't intended on killing Zack, he was his friend but he also stood in the way of his Mother….and Aerith. His white teeth flashed in a quick grin as he realized how easy it would be to write his death off as a battle casualty if the sweet rose of his thoughts ever asked what happened to her first love. What a pathetic first love at that, the general seethed. He wouldn't even give her a chance to think about the pup, he would keep her busy in their euphoria and the Promised Land. He now understood why the President was so interested in the Cetra and the Promised Land, it had all you could ever want as long as you were there with someone you loved.

"Sephiroth… I trusted you!" he told his idol sadly. He jumped up to bring down his mentor's blade upon his mentor's friend but was deflected. He fell upside down and gasped at the sight of his hero lightly floating down across from him.

The older SOLDIER lashed out Masamune and Zack barely deflected the attack as he found footing on some of the heavy industrial tubing. He launched himself at the general who deflected him and leapt to higher ground. Zack followed with a determined look on his face. They clashed in midair, twisting and turning as metal rang against metal between them. Sephiroth planted his booted feet against the wall and snarled at the impotent youth.

"No, you're not the Sephiroth I once knew!" Zack confirmed.

He was pushed down to a thick metal pipe before Sephiroth swooped in slash the pipe in two, sending Zack further down to a lower platform above the Mako pit. Zack looked around at the confined space, all that was separating him from the raw Mako was a thick layer of glass set on a metal catwalk wide enough for one man to walk across. Sephiroth floated down and raised his face to look at his opponent, his eyes glowed an ethereal shade of sea foam green and his lips curved menacingly.

"No…you're not…you're not the Sephiroth I once knew!" Zack challenged again with a mix of fear, duty and sadness in his azure blue eyes as he raised his Buster towards the First Class.

Sephiroth raised his arms as if in offering to the Gods. "I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to rule this planet." He flipped his wrist so that Masamune was raised to his face in a downward position, he evil grin widening as his pale green power coursed around the blade and was thrust down to shatter the thick glass completely. Zack blocked the green energy for as long as he could hold it against the broad blade and just managed to deflect it away from his person.

"I was the chosen one! I am the chosen existence that is to become this planet's ruler." He told Zack again as he slashed and hacked relentlessly.

Zack forced out an energy burst in a downward stroke of his sword but Sephiroth simply stood and deflected it to the side with the ease of swatting a fly. "In order to return this planet from you fools to the hands of the Cetra's, I was born." He explained before pushing the younger SOLDIER back down to where his mother was confined, bumping into a pipe against the wall and letting out steam before painfully landing before her prison. "For Mother's sake." His attacker said above him.

Sephiroth made more stabs and slashes that Zack managed to nimbly dodge before he was forced to block as their blades clashed. Sephiroth pressed his weight into the attack and he finally flung the exhausted SOLDIER from the chamber with Angeal's Buster rotating in the air to embed itself at the outer base platform as Zack slid head first on his stomach down the metal stairs.

Sephiroth returned to his mother and smiled in at her. He pressed his face and fingers against the glass, not unlike a child would at an ice cream shop, his wide smile mirroring his inner happiness. Zack would soon be out of his way now and the pleasant flower girl would be his without having her heart broken by the boy. He heard the soft clink of a sword being drawn from the metal platform but didn't turn to see who it could be. Who could harm the great Mighty Sephiroth? He was mildly surprised and mildly amused when whoever had retrieved the broad blade ran at him and thrust it into his middle. He gasped though he didn't really feel any pain and turned to see it was that Infantryman who couldn't even make SOLDIER, who wore that foolish helmet around his own hometown in shame of not making the cut. How dare he? How dare he! He clenched his gloved fingers against the glass that was cracking from the thrust of the thick blade, it leaked the precious liquid that had sustained Mother in her prison by ShinRa for so long. He seethed pure hatred at the weakling. He had no idea who he was messing with. When the blade was shoved in deeper then removed, the SOLDIER slumped slightly against the glass with a grunt as his body healed beneath his leather coat. He knelt as his energy was sapped from the closing wound. He was low on energy from the town and fight with Zack, he would recuperate for now, it would only be a minute.

"Tifa!" Cloud called as he left the chamber and went to tend to the girl who lay unconscious on the below platform. So that was her name.

Sephiroth slowly stood and peeled away the broken glass and tenderly touched his mother's form. She was fading with the loss of that life sustaining liquid Mako. He tried to retrieve her body but could only pull out her head as it came away cleanly. It must have been harmed from that damned foot soldier's mediocre thrust. He would pay. He turned towards the door and headed down the tubing with his mother's head in his right arm and Masamune in his left hand. He looked down from the door to Jenova's chamber at the boy as he cradled his apparently childhood friend from Sephiroth's judgment, maybe even a love interest for the pathetic boy.

The boy brushed a stray hair from her face causing her to open her cinnamon hued eyes. She smiled as he smiled down at her.

"Cloud…so you really did come for me…"

"Yeah." He answered.

"So you kept your promise. Huh. You really came when I was in a pinch."

"I'm sorry. I was a little late getting here." He apologized.

"Not at all." She told him. "It's fine… Cloud…"

He couldn't take it anymore. He stepped out onto the top of the stairs and leered down at them. "How dare you…"

Zack gasped from his position on the stairs. "Cloud… finish Sephiroth off…"

Cloud stood after laying Tifa back down carefully and positioned the blade by his cheek and charged up at the general. He yelled with all his anger, "Sephiroth!"

Who was he to challenge the general, the chosen one to rule the Planet, in such a way? Sephiroth calmly raised Masamune to block Cloud's aerial attack, holding him there before pushing him away, back into his mother's chamber where he lay unmoving and gasping on the floor. Sephiroth skewered the blond on his deadly Masamune and raised him high into the air so that he was forced to look down into his enraged mint eyes.

"Don't test me!" he growled.

The blond mumbled as he slowly raised his gloved hands to grip the blade impaling his chest. "My family...my hometown…you've done it alright!" he pulled himself along the blade until he had firm footing as Sephiroth's eyes widened in shock and he lifted the silver haired swordsman.

"No… impossible!" how could he pull himself along his blade? Nonetheless lift him into the air with it?

Cloud flung the astonished SOLDIER across the pit of Mako and into the wall where his body burst through wires and machinery in little explosions, his body falling with the head of his beloved mother and his treasured Masamune still in his hands.

He fell and fell, deeper into the pit of the Planet, his body ensnared by the mint green tendrils of the lifestream. He focused all his will power on survival, on all his power in his body. He surrounded himself in a protective bubble of sorts as tears slid down his face. He clutched his precious mother's head to his heart and thought about his friends who shared her cells inadvertently and had been subjected to degradation. He wasn't like them, he had been perfect in everything. Except timing, he realized. If those foolish boys hadn't been here to stop him the town would be ashes and the people heaps of torn flesh stewing in pools of blood. His energies pulsed in fury then softened in pity for himself. He could have returned home to see Aerith and eventually win her from Zack. Instead he floated listlessly for years in the lifestream until he found himself in a solid chunk of Mako…until he was revived by his remnants….

_**Please R/R =)**_


	3. The Church

**Forgiveness**

_**Okay, I fixed this chapter up some, filling in my notes I accidently forgot about when in a hurry to post lol Purely fan made all rights to Square Enix for the characters. Please enjoy!**_

**The** **Church**

Sephiroth looked down possessively at the pink clad flower girl as she kneeled below. His eyes traced every soft curve of her slim body and every strand of her chestnut curls as silky as his own silver hair. She was all he had been able to think about. Their future together and their journey into the Promised Land to truly resurrect the Cetra in their images, they would be gods of the Planet and Gaia would cringe before them at their mercy! She was a tender soul though, he would be the iron hand while she the gently caress to their new world, it would be a perfect balance.

She held back the worst of the tears that threatened to start back up. What had happened to the kind hearted SOLDIER, the general who was devoted to his men's welfare and his nation? The man who had found her gentle hand fascinating and had taken care of her flowers with her? Where was the man who had showed her that she was powerful in her bloodline and helped her see her true worth? He had been gone for many years. Though she never forgot him all that time and she was sure he never forgot her. She looked back to the Cloud zombie before her and sighed. When she had told him that he reminded her of a man she once cared about it wasn't only his old friend, her first love, Zack Fair whom he outwardly resembled and carried the same weapon of, but of a presence she sensed within him. She knew that Cloud and Zack had been injected with Sephiroth's cells after he was declared killed in action. A part of him would always be in Cloud, it was what gave Cloud the physical strength he never had to be able to fight like a SOLDIER which he had never been able to do. He had strong will but Sephiroth's cells made him the fighter he was, his emotional drive the only thing that could give him the upper hand against her dark angel. She heard his movement high above her as he prepared to make his descent and she finished the part of the saving spell that her physical body could do and took a steadying breath for what was finally going to come to pass.

The dark cloaked warrior lounged down with a frown on his face. He had to kill her, the only woman he ever chose to love. She stood in his and his Mother's way of the Promised Land. He had hoped she would see things his way, he had hoped that she would remain in her church in the Slums until he came back for her like he had told her he would and she had confirmed that she knew he would one day. He laughed mentally at the irony of their words. Did she know he was to come for her at her church in this way? She probably had, she was always a smart one and she was so brave. Masamune was held steady in his hands in a downward thrust as he neared his target and the puppet that had complicated things so long ago stood idly by. His blade found its mark as it inserted itself into her abdomen.

She jerked slightly even though she had been waiting for it and gasped at the sharp pain of the twisting blade in her midsection. She managed a tortured smile and her half lidded emerald eyes softened in love.

"I knew you'd come for me…I knew this was how it had to be. I'm sorry for all I've put you through, I'm sorry for loving you when I loved Zack. I still do love him, love both of you. But I had to protect the Planet from Jenova…Seph, you need to know that… I forgive you." A faint laugh passed through her pale rose pink lips as her ribbon came undone and her braid unraveled. She leaned forward as her energy drained with her life blood from her fatal wound and her hands dropped to her sides. "I will wait for you… my beloved… in a field of our flowers." her eyes closed and she saw her mother's Holy materia bounce into the watery depths around her through her heavy lashes.

"You are my angel that never left me, I only wish things went differently then and that we were where our people belong, the Promised Land. I will return for you, to take you there with me where we can be together forever. Sleep now and wait for me." He whispered lovingly as he retracted his katana from her body. He could smell her death, even it was sweet with the scent of lilies like she was in life, and watched her blood pool beneath her. Her face was peaceful, still angelic in all its beauty. He looked up to see the puppet's widened eyes at what he had just let unfold before him. He wouldn't have been able to stop it, Meteor will come and wipe out the Planet so that he could return for his beloved flower girl and they could sculpt the Promised Land, even without Mother. She had given him her alien power although ShinRa had perfected it. He was smarter and stronger than her and had easily overpowered her. She didn't deserve what she had sought after centuries ago, Sephiroth and Aerith did.

Cloud caught Aerith as she fell. "Aerith?" he shook her gently, hoping it was all a dream. "This can't be real!"

Sephiroth raised his hands gloriously. "Do not worry. Soon the girl will become part of the Planet's energy. All that is left is to go North. The Promised Land waits for me over the snowy fields." And Aerith would be there. "There I will become a new being by uniting with the Planet." _With your help,_ he thought to himself. "As will this girl…"

"Shut up…" Cloud feebly commanded. "The cycle of nature and your stupid plan don't mean a thing. Aerith is gone." He said with self-loathing. "Aerith will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry…or get angry… What about us…what are _we_ supposed to do? What about my pain?"

_It means nothing you worthless puppet_, Sephiroth seethed, _how dare he claim any connection with what was _his…

The foolish weakling continued to mourn, "My fingers are tingling, my mouth is dry, my eyes are burning!"

_Get used to it._ "What are you saying? Are you telling me you have feelings too?" What had his beloved done to make the boy feel in such a way?

"Of course, who do you think I am?" Cloud burst out as he laid Aerith's slim, still body at his feet.

Sephiroth laughed heartily, amused by the whelp. "Ha ha ha! Stop acting as if you were sad. There's no need to act as though you are angry either." The puppet would have no emotions toward _his_ Aerith. He would make him see it, that he wasn't fit to claim anything to do with Aerith, not even her death into her rebirth. He floated high, preparing to make his leave. The blond didn't even try to stop him, what a pity. He was truly pathetic. "Because, Cloud… You are…" he spiraled above and out of the worthless human's sight, leaving Jenova to tell him what he was and would always be, nothing more.

Jenova's voice resonated in Cloud's head, "Because, you are a puppet."

"I'm… a puppet?" the blond asked dumbly. He picked Aerith's limp body up and brought her down to lower her body into the water of the church in the Forbidden City and watched as she sank below, her chestnut waves flaring beneath her in her descent.

080

As the chilling water surrounded Aerith's physical body she mentally gasped. She slowly sank to the dark depths where the faint glow of Holy resonated where it had fallen to rest on the muddy floor of the small body of water. She felt her body make contact with the slippery mud and she forced her eyes open to see she was no longer engulfed by water but by a harsh white light instead. She shielded her eyes at first but found the light comforted her instead of bothering her eyesight and she looked around with her hands hovering below her throat nervously. A brighter light flashed in front of her and a taller woman who Aerith recognized vaguely as her mother, Ifalna, stood smiling down at her.

"Aerith, my child, it's been too long but not as long as I had hoped it would be." She embraced her daughter in a warm hug.

"Mother, where are we? Where's Sephiroth and Cloud?" she turned to see many other's but none were her two friends.

"Calm thy self, my dear, they aren't here because they haven't passed on yet. You're here in particular because you will need to fulfill your destiny in protecting the Planet just before the Meteor strikes." She pressed the glowing white pearl of materia into the young Cetra's hands.

Her large emerald eyes looked down at the precious orb and a tear slid down her cheek. "Is Sephiroth going to die when I cancel Meteor?"

Ifalna's gaze softened and a sad smile spread across her beautiful face. "That all depends on how Cloud fulfills his destiny. But if you don't stop Meteor, the whole Planet will die and everything on it."

Aerith nodded her understanding. She knelt there where she was and clutched Holy to her chest as tears streaked down her face, plastering her bangs to her cheeks and sides of her face. She was vaguely aware that her mother left her after patting her comfortingly on the back before joining the other of their kind.

She stayed there, every now and then the whispers of the Planet told her of her friends progress. She cried with every pain she felt channeled through her from her friends and her dark angel as they fought for the fate of the Planet. She heard every cry of every life that fell, human, animal or monster and she felt every wave of sorrow of the alive and suffering. Every day that grew near the fated time of the arrival of Meteor Holy would glow brighter and brighter, almost as if it was preparing itself the coming calamity.

Then she felt it. Sephiroth had summoned Meteor, the surge of dark forbidden power ravaging through space to summon the fiery rock. It wasn't time for her friends to confront Sephiroth but it was only a few days away. Her breathing quickened as she felt torn between the two, Cloud or Sephiroth. Sephiroth she wanted to pull close to her to love him with all her heart and change his dark thoughts to good, Cloud she wanted to pull close so she could shelter him like a mother would her own child. Both men had suffered more than their fair share although honestly Sephiroth had suffered the greater blow which ended up careening him off the edge of sanity. She didn't know who she wanted to win more, the young blond or the silver warrior. The other Cetra surrounded her at a distance with worry filled eyes. She knew who she was supposed to want to prevail but if he did or didn't she would still have to finish the spell of Holy and she still wanted the wrong man to win. She steadied her breathing before it could escalate into hyperventilation and wondering why she even needed to breathe if she was dead. Brushing aside the insignificant train of thought she returned her attention to the matter at hand and waited as the days passed.

And passed.

Finally in what must have been about a week on the Planet she felt the cataclysmic fight of the swordsman and gasped as what she knew would happen happened and Sephiroth was slowly absorbed by the unwilling Lifestream. She could feel Meteor only days away and Holy was like a warm coal in her hands. She felt a wrenching in the pit of her stomach but she ignored the pain of the loss and focused on the materia. It would shine as bright as the light around her when it was time to complete the last verse of the spell and she slowly chanted it, building its effect. It would need to be strong enough to pull the Lifestream around the Planet in a strong enough force to break apart the flaming rock.

080

Sephiroth grinned as he was 'defeated' by the puppet. If his own monster of a Mother couldn't control him than he'd be damned if that pathetic excuse for a warrior actually beat him, but he needed to be in the Lifestream as the Planet was catered its doom in the form of Meteor. He would be joining his beloved Aerith soon and they would bring back their race of superior beings. The warm tendrils of the Lifestream spiraled around him and pulled him into the larger current. His will prevented it from breaking him down like it normally did to those who died though, he needed to be one with himself as his mind absorbed the stream without letting it consume him entirely. Only then would he be able to return to take what was rightfully his…and Aerith's of course. He grinned lustily at the thought of her in all her innocence and serene beauty. He would claim her along with the Planet.

Meanwhile, he felt his remnants scurrying across the Planet in search of Jenova's head, the only part of her body still intact although in a poor state. She was actually in the Crater where he was last 'defeated'. But the silly puppet and his little friends had left it, too much in a hurry to resume what they could of a normal life. Like it or not, the puppet was also a remnant having been injected with Sephiroth's cells back in Nebilheim after the incident where the silver haired SOLDIER had been rudely interrupted with his plans of world annihilation and rebirth. He would come crawling back to him like them all. Sephiroth honed his consciousness on a certain trio who were making the most headway since his time on the Planet. It had only been a few days but the Meteor was coming and he had to make sure everything went down without a hitch. They had found the Crater but unfortunately the pesky Turks had gotten there first, nabbing the head and encasing it in liquid Mako like she had been encased in for the previous years since her discovery.

080

Aerith paused in her chanting to focus on Cloud. He was currently riding a bike through the Forbidden City towards the lake where the children contaminated by the geostigma were gathered by the remnants. He was thinking of her again, she could taste his remorse for her death although he couldn't have stopped it and shouldn't have. It had nothing to do with his capability as a swordsman, but everything with the flower girl's and silver haired SOLDIER's own separate destinies. She smiled kindly and used her will to project him and her into a field of lilies that once covered the whole Planet. She smiled at him as they stood back to back. He was a little confused until she giggled.

"You came." She was glad she was able to reach her friend, she was only able to meet him if his mind wanted to come to her. "Even when you're about to break, hmm?"

She gently touched his arm. "That's a good sign," he was on his way to fulfilling his destiny and was doing great although her heart was breaking for a certain tall swordsman. "But why did you come?" she needed to know what was bothering him although she was quite sure she knew the problem.

"I think," he said slowly, "I need to be forgiven."

"By who?" she giggled, he could be so adorable when he was chivalrous.

"You…"

"I never blamed you. Not once. You came for me… that's all that matters." she gently scolded with a smile. As he turned to look at her though she let him return to his physical body. He needed to save the children.

She gasped slightly as she returned to the other Cetra to find Ifalna looking down at her lovingly. "He will be stronger now knowing you are there with him."

"I have always been with him." She said as she looked away so her mother couldn't see the truth in her eyes of her feelings.

"Do you love him?"

"Yes, although not like that, but Zack was my first and true and then there was…" she trailed off, not quite sure if she should reveal to her mother about her feelings towards the Planet's enemy.

"Sephiroth?" her mother guessed with a grin. "Honey, you aren't the first to fall for the dangerous men and you won't be the last. I'm not going to tell you he is the wrong choice, I am not you, but he has become something entirely different from the man who visited you in Midgar."

Aerith nodded, fighting to hold back tears that threatened to spill anew. She felt guilty for what happened to Sephiroth although she wasn't sure why. "Seph…"

080

Sephiroth grinned proudly as he sensed his remnants close to his 'Mother's' head. Although the fools couldn't sense her like he could and were therefore unaware that she was in the folds of ShinRa's white robe. Bahamut SIN was summoned and as it ravaged the city and toppled the statue, she was revealed. The scramble was brief and she was in the hands of the smallest of the remnants.

Shortly after her meeting with Cloud, Aerith sensed her help was needed. She focused in on her friends and saw they were in the middle of a battle with a Bahamut SIN. She blanched at the sheer power of the summon and quickly traveled down in a form to help the blond soldier. The creature was surrounded by a blue force and as Cloud was flung upwards she waited for him and finally reached out to be the last member to throw him true to the dragon. The time was nearing when Holy would need to be fully cast. She concentrated back in her sanctuary for the spell.

Sephiroth waited for the moment that Cloud would stop hassling the boy remnant so the welp could fuse with the head. Of course, he wouldn't be at his fullest strength with just that boy fusing but he had to do it now. He hovered above as they fought, twisting and turning with clashing blades until the boy allowed his katana to be flung aside and him to be forced into a position that left him clinging to the edge of a building. He had to admit though, he had thought fast and distracted the puppet with the case of Jenova's head and flung himself to catch the damaged package and press the contaminating cells to his chest. Sephiroth jumped at the opportunity and began the fusion. He was at the point of taking full control when Cloud came down with his blade to be stopped by the materialization of his trusted Masamune. The young boy's eyes followed the long katana and his eyes widened as he returned his gaze to Sephiroth's mint green. The silver haired SOLDIER First Class smirked up at his current prey. "Hello, Cloud."

_**Please R/R =)**_


	4. The Promised Land

**Forgiveness**

_**Purely fan made all rights to Square Enix for the characters.**_

**The** **Promised Land**

Aerith stood by in the light as she felt the swordsman clash once more. She knew who would win, Sephiroth was fighting for his own needs and misguided beliefs while Cloud fought for all that was dear to him…everything, even those that had belittled him along with his cherished friends and all the innocence of the Planet. She was nearing the end of the spell as she continued to chant it once more. Meteor was too close for comfort.

Sephiroth cursed to himself. He was close to finishing the puppet when his body was failing him. The filthy remnant that dared call him 'brother' was unable to support all his power in his frail body. True, Kadaj was a skilled and expert warrior who was one of the best of his remnants along with Loz and Yazoo but he still was only a tiny fraction of Sephiroth's strength. Cloud was now gaining the upper hand, once again about to 'defeat' him by getting lucky, he wouldn't even have his 'amazing strength' if it wasn't for Sephiroth's own cells in the boy's body. He didn't deserve the life he had, although on the former general's second thought, the puppet's life was one of despair and sadness. He had lost so much and he did deserve that in his opinion. He had to live with the death of that amazing flower girl when he would be the one to claim her in his new world, not just have her as a friend. He laughed as the puppet began his attack. He thought he had him pinned but he could have escaped if he wanted but the body he now inhabited was weak and quickly degrading. As he let the puppet's weak attacks ravage the frail body of the small remnant he smiled and remained in the air above him, looking down at his anger and sorrow filled eyes.

"Stay where you belong… in my memories." He defied him.

Sephiroth smirked with hatred at the boy. "I will…never be a memory." His glorious raven black wing folded around his body and he faded away before Kadaj's body began to join the Lifestream as Aerith's healing rain fell upon Midgar, curing Jenova's infesting cells.

Sephiroth grinned as he tasted a few drops through his group of remnants as he was washed from their bodies. Cloud was struck down before finishing the other two silver haired remnants and then he passed out. The SOLDIER was aware when she came to him a second time with that pup Zack to awaken the blond in the pool of water below and he felt jealous of the two spikey haired boys. They had been able to have her affections openly although drastically different in their lifetimes. Zack had been her first love while Cloud had been her child so to speak, someone for her to look after until he fulfilled what his destiny foretold. He wanted her affections like that, to feel her once again. He was always one for patience but it had been too long since he had stroked her soft cheek, entangled his long fingers in her silky waves of chestnut brown hair, felt her soft pale pink lips on his own lips, her small fragile body as she wrapped her thin arms around his torso in a warm compassionate embrace. He wanted her physically again.

Aerith smiled down as she tapped Cloud with Zack beside her. When the blond woke up in the pool he found he was in a ring of the orphans who had been contaminated like he was. He beckoned Denzel forward and sprinkled the healing water on the youth and smiled as his friends cheered for their recent victory. His eyes found Aerith as she was kneeling beside some orphans by the door and he paused. She was walking toward Zack, the two he had pinned over for so long, blaming himself for their deaths. She turned and smiled over her shoulder at him.

"See," her kind voice rang out. "Everything's okay…" she willed him to believe it, he didn't have to suffer any more than what he allowed himself to suffer.

He nodded and even Tifa commented as she felt the flower girl's presence. "You never left him… did you?" she smiled knowing her close friend had had his own guardian angels watching over him.

Aerith exited the church and looked over at Zack. "I missed you, but you don't have to watch over Cloud anymore…"

He nodded with that crooked grin on his face as he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I guess so. I kinda got used to watching over him, ya know? He was always picked on by his troop. So, I guess I won't be seeing you anymore also?" his face fell a little as her face fell as well.

"No, you have to join the Lifestream so new life can continue in your place." She said softly.

"What about you? Will we meet in our next lives?" she looked up to see his sky blue eyes filled with hope.

She smiled with tears glistening in her emerald eyes. "Zack… I… I don't know. I'm a Cetra and I still have duties to perform in the sake of the Planet even in my death. I'm not really dead in the total sense, I go on to the Promised Land while you all must wait until the end of the Planet." She didn't want to be saying goodbye to him, not when she had just gotten him back. Then she thought of Sephiroth who was no doubt waiting for her where he was currently at.

Zack smiled and wrapped her in a bear hug. He whispered in her ear, "Sephiroth is a lucky guy, I'm just glad I actually had you as a girlfriend. It was nice knowing you Aerith, I can't wait to see you next time."

She couldn't hold back the tears anymore. "I love you Zack, I'll never forget you."

"I know, you're still wearing that ribbon I got you." He grinned and let her go as his body began to dissolve into the Lifestream.

Aerith smiled at him until he was gone. She wrapped herself in her arms and looked back into the church through the cracked doors and she saw Cloud hugging Tifa and their heartfelt kiss that was long overdue as the children cheered around them, obviously thinking the same thing. She was glad they finally professed their feelings towards one another and she turned her gaze to the Slums around her. They had been her home for so long after Ifalna's death. She missed them really, but her new home was the Promised Land with her fellow Cetra. She slowly walked down the streets, past people she had known and people who were new to her, all couldn't even see her but she did notice that they smiled as she passed them. Her presence was still a positive influence on the Planet and that warmed her heart. She sadly realized that she couldn't remain here longing for the past as she sat on a bench in the park where she had talked with Sephiroth and Zack on her dates and meetings with them. She had to meet with Sephiroth and help him like only she could.

Sephiroth felt her as she materialized beside him. From his periphery vision he could see her tear streaked face and he wanted to reach over and wipe the tears away but her stoic expression made him keep his arms at his sides.

"Aerith…"

"_Why_, Seph? Why did you have to do it?" her voice cracked and fresh tears fell but she didn't wipe them, she let them fall down her cheeks and off her chin to leave a few scattered spots on her pink dress. He still remembered when she picked out that dress and jacket.

"They didn't deserve the soil they trod on. We did…"

"Sephiroth!" she looked up at him. "You didn't need to destroy so many lives to finish what Jenova started. Do you even know who your mother is?"

Sephiroth thought back to what Genesis had told him. Obviously his old friend had had no idea who Sephiroth's real parents were. "I guess some poor soul Hojo preyed upon."

The girl beside him nodded. "Her name was Lucrecia Crescent and she loved you dearly. You have no idea how your current and past mind set and actions have upset her spirit. Or how much they've upset _me_."

"I did it all _for_ us!" he protested.

She shook her head, her bangs flapping across her sparkling emerald vision. "You didn't have to, no one has to. You were acting on greed and you ruined so many lives." She remembered the reports she had heard in the Market about the town of Nebilheim back when she was waiting for her SOLDIERs to return to her. "I waited for you… and you didn't come because of what you did with Jenova in Nebilheim. I waited years for you even though the Planet told me you both wouldn't return to me, I believed you would. I ventured above the Plate in secret hopes to find one of you and neither of you were there for me. You broke my heart Seph…"

He didn't know what to say.

"But despite that, I still wanted you to survive this and be the man you once were."

He looked down at her and his cold Mako mint eyes softened. "I still am…"

"No." she shook her head again. "You're not, you've become… an animal. Cloud and Zack were your friends and you strived to kill them in cold blood. You aren't a Cetra, whatever Jenova was you have part of her in your DNA and are rejected by the Planet's Lifestream so it won't be able to ever absorb you but you are not like me."

He felt the sting of the truth in her words and his left cheek felt moist all of a sudden. He reached up to wipe it away to find it was a tear. "What are you saying?"

"Seph, there is no denying our love but we are opposites, light and dark. For some reason, we complete each other but you must stop your quest for destruction of the Planet, please. For me, for us!" she begged him.

He paused and looked down at her. She was so frail, so petite, so perfect. He wanted to shield her from the world although he knew she could take it on and then some. She had so much power in her blood like he had. "You're wrong, we are both part alien and that makes us alike. We share in so many things, the only thing we defer on is whether this Planet deserves to continue living. Aerith, the filthy scum that calls itself humanity selfishly hid as your ancestors were consumed by Jenova. They resurfaced only when she was asleep and then they began to populate and outnumber your kind. They took this Planet from them and they don't deserve it!"

Her eyes darkened with remorse. "Sephy, they were meant to inherit the land as we were meant to move on to the place everyone strives for, the Promised Land."

"That is where I wanted to take the life from the Lifestream, I wanted to take it to the Promised Land." He agreed readily.

"But Seph, it's not their time. Gaia decides when it's time for them to move on when her time is at its own end. I can't bring you there though, not how you are now." There was a twinge of sadness in her soft voice.

The swordsman wrapped his leather clad arms around her and held her. "I will try to change back to what I was, but I must right the wrongs after realizing them on a certain level. That can't happen overnight, my beloved." She sobbed against his bare chest. "But listen, little one, visit me in this limbo of life every now and then to remind me of what I had and can still have."

"I'll visit you as many times as I have to!" she mumbled against him.

"Let me be with you on the earth my sweet fragrant rose, let me taste you there." He felt her nod against him.

"I would do anything for you Sephy, anything."

He leaned down and planted a kiss on the top of her head as he smiled. He wanted to please her, he really did. But that last comment had him thinking, if he could get her bound to him to where she couldn't resist any of his demands, then her vow would prove very useful to him indeed. She sighed and released her hold on him. He leaned down and kissed her lips softly, it wasn't a demand for more, it was a promise of what was to come and she leaned into it hungrily until he pulled back to his full height. She backed away with a bittersweet look on her face and a gnawing feeling in her stomach as she faded in a sprinkling of white and soft green tinted light. Sephiroth looked on with his mind already working on how to get her back to him already. He needed her trust, he already had her heart, he only needed her Cetra soul to fulfill his true destiny in taking over not only the Planet but the Promised Land as well. Despite her words of wisdom he could never sit back idly and accept that what he wanted to happen one day would, he had gotten everything on the Planet he had had because he had made 'one day' 'today' and made it happen. No matter what. That had been his nature and no amount of love, even if it's felt toward a certain beautiful Cetra, could change a warrior's nature. He sighed and looked down at his hell he was trapped in thanks to Gaia, nothing but white, so pure. He felt like he was tainting the brightness with his dark leather and past sins. If only his plans had happened the way he wanted them to he would be with his beloved Aerith in the Promised Land, making life anew.

080

Aerith rubbed her hand with the heel of her hand and looked down at the small flower garden below her. She had vanished to her Church in the Slums after her visit with Sephiroth and was already crying again. Why couldn't he see that he didn't need to take the matters of the Promised Land into his own hands? As a Cetra she could come and go as she pleased since she could remember, it had been her solace at times without her knowing it. When times were tough on her and her mother in the Slums she would fall asleep and dream of a place where her real mother was with all her other family and she would wake up happy and cheerful, renewed of hope. She didn't know she had concentrated on her Holy materia and actually gone to the Promised Land in her sleeps. Now she didn't want to be there at all. Not without Sephiroth. Of course his remnants were there and whenever she laid eyes on them she was reminded of him, the way he used to be, loving and kind. That was along with the fact that they were just as deadly as he was. Her dark green gaze flicked over to where Cloud was ruffling Denzel's dark hair with a sad smile on his face. She decided to pay him a visit and appeared right beside him, not yet making herself visible as she listened to what was being said to the young boy.

"I'm fine now Denzel, I promise."

"So you will come home and we can be a family again?"

"We never stopped being a family Denzel, I just couldn't let the past go. I lost someone dear to me a while back, a good friend of my best friend, and it took me a while to cope with both losses." Cloud explained.

Aerith smiled sadly too, she missed Zack too, but he was where he was supposed to be now. She had a hard time letting him go too. She looked down at the young boy who nodded in understanding before racing down the aisle to catch up with the other orphans and Tifa who was leaning on the door jamb of the church's double doors. Cloud straightened and slowly walked back to the water pool and the flower girl followed him, looking back to see that Tifa stayed put, she too understanding the swordsman's burden he struggled to fully let go.

"Aerith," Cloud murmured, "I know you said I don't need to seek your forgiveness, but how can I not? I tried to replace the life of the man you loved and my best friend, and I was weak when I needed to be strong. I was never SOLDIER, never able to fully fight on my own, always being pushed around by my squad members, Zack had to help me every time. Then when we were injected with Sephiroth's cells… that was what gave me my strength, wasn't it? But after the injections and Zack finally freed us… I was so weak I couldn't even walk or form a sentence. I was a rag doll when Zack faced the whole of the ShinRa Army and I couldn't help him when he was injured… He was so bloody… He wanted me to live for both of us and to tell you he finally became a hero. At least one of us did."

Aerith frowned and decided she had had enough of her friend's self-loathing and made herself visible to him. He gasped at her sudden appearance but didn't say anything.

"Cloud, why do you torture yourself over this? I already told you nothing was your fault."

"But I couldn't protect you. Nor Zack… and I dared called myself SOLDIER."

"You are a soldier although you weren't injected with Mako like the others, that was a blessing. You had heart and honor and that's what a soldier really merits in, not muscle. I admired you because you were just like Zack, you had values and kept your honor…"

"I almost killed you back at the Forbidden City!" Cloud interjected.

Aerith smiled and shook her head, her long perfect braid swinging against her back. "You didn't. And unfortunately, that was Sephiroth trying to control you with his cells Hojo injected into you in Nebilheim. That's also why you had the Geostigma, it was Jenova's cells."

Cloud nodded. He knew that but still he couldn't forgive himself apparently. The flower girl sighed and knelt by the water, looking up to the large hole in the fragile roof. "You know, this was where Zack and I first met."

Cloud knelt beside her and looked up at the hole too.

"I found out later that he had been fighting the SOLDIER First Class Genesis and Angeal, they had just revealed what the experiments on their fetal stages had made them and he was thrown down by his close friend and mentor, Angeal. On my end I was tending the flowers like I always did and then there was a cracking noise and he fell right into the middle of my garden, unconscious. That was until I said, 'Helloooooooo, hellooooooo' down at him until he started calling me his mom." She giggled at the memory. "Kadaj and the others weren't the first to call me that I guess. I was scared of ShinRa then, didn't know how to cope with them except to hide amongst my flowers in this Church, the one place that wasn't blackened in Midgar."

"What happened after you woke him up?"

"He asked if he was in heaven and when I told him not quite as he was only in a church, he called me an angel." She smiled, Cloud smiled too, she was an angel. "Then he wanted to repay me with one date."

"What did you say?"

"I told him not to be silly. But then when I was telling him how to get back up above the Plate I told him I'd lead him there and we walked to the Market and he bought me this ribbon there along with perfume that smelled like the sweetest roses for just a little extra. I didn't want to be a burden though, but he insisted. He even helped a merchant retrieve his fallen materia, I had never seen anyone move that fast and he had helped this young boy I knew get his wallet back so he could get his from the boy. I remember he wanted to punish him so bad but I got him to just give the boy a little lecture instead."

"Were you happy with him?" Cloud asked.

Aerith thought back to her days of dating Zack and knew she had been happy, and he was the one to show her she could be happy away from her flowers. But then there was Sephiroth who she also sort of dated. She couldn't see Zack until the Lifestream was filtered to the Promised Land but Sephiroth could still see her, he had stayed with her even though he had been the one to kill her. But she had forgiven the former general hadn't she? She knew the real Sephy was still deep down in the darkened warrior and wished he would settle with what he had and had had and not what he was never meant to achieve. Then again, she knew him well enough to know that wouldn't happen, not with her Sephiroth. "Yes, I was happy with him. But I was happy with someone else too, someone who always made time for me even if he was out in the field and I loved them both, as I love you as well."

She felt the shock roll of the warrior and giggled. "I love you like a son, I always wanted to protect you, you know. But Tifa can do that if you can't yourself. I loved these two men differently though, they were tight friends and one of them knew I was seeing them both. He would wait for me or see me when the other was turned around. He really loved to buy my flowers, he loved the smell of them."

"Who was the other man?"

She turned to look him in his unnatural eyes, the same eyes as all SOLDIER operatives, the same as Zack's and let a small smile grace her lips. "He was Sephiroth."

Cloud's eyes widened and his pupils dilated in shock as he lurched back and away from his friend. "Wha… why him? You know what he did, you were with us when we chased him, when we fought him… he killed you!"

Aerith nodded, the smile not fading.

"How could you love him? Like that or any way? He was a monster."

"Cloud, I am aware of what he did, but he was misguided. Besides, you know he wasn't always what we chased after, what we fought and defeated. He was a man once that cared about this Planet to some extent and protected the people with his life. He was the mighty ShinRa Army General. He called me every day and came to see me whenever he could, more than Zack did. He was growing flowers in Nebilheim before he found out about Jenova… and how he was created. If I was laid with information like that I would probably do the same thing if not something along those lines." She explained gently.

Cloud shook his head in disbelief. "Cloud, I still love him as I love Zack, but Zack has now departed to the Lifestream now that you have come to terms of his death but I have just come from Sephiroth."

"He's still alive?"

Aerith nodded.

The last words the former general spoke to Cloud flared fresh across his memory, _I will never be a memory, _the bastard was like a cockroach. "How?"

"He cannot enter the Lifestream as he is now and the Planet won't have him either way because of Jenova's cells and his attempt to induce the passage to the Promised Land by destroying the Planet and therefore sending the circle of life to the Land. But if he can accept that he must wait, I can bring him there as long as he knows he was wrong. He still loves me, too." She sighed as her body remembered his touch from moments ago as well as their more intimate contacts before though nothing comprising her virtue. But Cloud still wouldn't come to terms with it. "Cloud, it is my heart and he is the one who holds part of it just as Zack did and you and our friends do. Even if you can't see him for what I love I can and nothing will change that."

She lightly laid her hand on his bicep and smiled at him. He slowly returned the smile and they both stood. Cloud walked with her up to Tifa who looked at her with a soft smile that the flower girl returned. "Look after him now, I have my own man to guide to the light. Cloud, don't torture yourself anymore, okay?"

She leaned up to peck his cheek and walked back to where her garden once was, looking over her shoulder as she had earlier to see the couple wrap their arms around the other like they were each other's life lines to life. She hoped Sephiroth would hold onto her like that and never let her go because she would never let him go, not once he was himself again.

She concentrated on the purity of the Promised Land and opened her eyes to see Ifalna before her. "Mother…" they hugged and the older Cetra led her daughter to where the others were.

"Welcome home, my daughter."

Ifalna led Aerith through the welcoming crowd to a small paradise of clear waters flowing across lush hilly fields dotted with pure white structures like the Forbidden City. The sky was Mako blue and everything was inviting. She was home, in the Promised Land that the Cetra had dominion over and could access before or after their deaths. This was what Sephiroth needed to see, this would make him hers forever.

_**Sorry for the late update, got a lot of stuff going on and this was sitting half-finished at the bottom of the pile apparently. Hope the wait was worth it though ^^ please leave a review, greatly appreciated!**_


	5. Burn

**Forgiveness**

_**Purely fan made all rights to Square Enix for the characters.**_

**Burn**

Sephiroth spent his time planning his re-entry to the Planet. He wasn't sure how long he considered his options as he was floating aimlessly in what he supposed was Limbo as the Lifestream continued to reject him for obvious reasons. He couldn't reintroduce a geostigma like his 'Mother's' passing had upon the populace for another Reunion as there was no alien body to pass the new disease and the Reunion _had_ already taken place. But he still possessed the ability to re-introduce his being into a life form to conduct what he willed.

There was a slight nagging at the back of his conscious. As feeble and weak as it was he turned towards the source and smirked.

"Ah, Jenova, 'Mother' dearest in deed." He greeted the mangled body that crawled slowly toward him through the white shimmering ether. "What do you want now?"

Jenova finally shuddered to a halt at his booted feet and craned her silvery head up to reveal pleading violet eyes as she struggled to mouth her request.

The former General of the ShinRa Army narrowed Mako mint eyes and scowled at the pathetic body before him. "Hmph, barely able to crawl and grovel in this place and even more incapable of speech, Jenova you are wasting my time."

"P-p-p-plea-ssse… son..take me with…you…" she mumbled as her grayish hand lifted, her long thin fingers reaching out to brush the bottom of his long coat.

He was about to strike her with a kick to her for her frailty but then reconsidered. He wanted to take over the Planet and whether he wanted to admit it or not she did possess power he didn't. She had fed off the Cetra after all even if their power had been drained from her long sleep and usage by ShinRa's half-brained scientists. She could spread her infection to the human population this time, couldn't she? But he'd have to give her life force a body as well as his own and he wasn't sure the effort, even though it was barely one at all, was worth it. Was she that worthless? Or could he toy with her like he did before? She knew she had no more power over him from the moment he discovered who he really was and what he could really do. An evil grin spread across his chiseled features. She didn't cringe from the evil smile that grew as one grew across her own gray face and her eyes flared with hunger for her unquenchable bloodlust. She had a like mind as the man who shared her genes and knew they would be upon the Planet soon, but this time things had to go differently and Gaia couldn't prevent them with the previous destruction of her precious Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and Diamond Weapons that that puppet had fought with his ram shambled group of fools. They had unknowingly paved the path of ruination for their beloved Planet even if their last attempt had failed. Third time's the charm as those silly humans said after all. Third time's the charm.

Sephiroth bent down and cradled his 'Mother' and laughed, the sound deep, resonating through the ether that seemed to curl away from the black spot of the two of its inhabitants that soiled its pearly essence. He stepped forward and shifting the gray body so that it rested in his right arm against his broad chest he lifted his left hand and Masamune flashed in a green swirl of energy into his gloved fist. He slashed the ether and they found themselves levitating above the Planet, the Lifestream circling the orb like a ring of protection. The stream parted, curling away as Sephiroth willed himself towards hunk of rock, as that was all it was to him although he had been born on it and raised on it, fought and revered on it then feared on it, it was of no importance except that of a vessel to carry the unworthy to their reward of death and despair. The image of a green eyed flower girl dancing among white and yellow lilies flashed through his mind's eye, mingling with images of her twirling in her sundress, sniffing a bud with a pleasant smile on her face, leaning in to press her rosy lips to his. Heat flared through him from his breast and he inhaled sharply. For her, he was doing this so her death, while caused by him, wasn't in vain for the cause of why he had to. They were bound by destiny and he had reign over life and death as did she, though of the gentler kind. He was unforgiving and ruthless while she balanced with forgiveness and mercy. Such a lovely image she made and an even lovelier one she would make when he had her alone. He would need to acquire a decent body on the Planet though for his fantasies to become his reality. There would need to be a small reunion of sorts like the one with Kadaj was supposed to have been successful and there were no more traces of Jenova's cells from her disease… His sharp cat-like eyes scanned the surface of the Planet and narrowed at one familiar spot. The Reactor of Nebilheim. It was where Jenova had been kept in her Mako solution and the nearby ShinRa Mansion had been a holding cell of sorts for creatures created with her cells. If his memory served him correct, which it usually did, there would still be left over experiments that he could put their life force into to, empty vessels to fill so to speak. They would be stronger for it as well, he thought, as the bodies would already contain the Mako tainted cells from the Reactor and the strengthening cells of Jenova.

"What do you think, Jenova? Why don't we stop by our old home to pick up our luggage for our new lives?" his mouth tilted up in a crooked grin and he felt the bundle in his arms nod, her silky sliver hair rubbing soft against his bare chest. "Good, we will find all we need there."

He continued to drift through space until they breached the gravitational pull of the Planet and focused on the mountain town they were descending upon. The townspeople were clueless to what was being let back into their world. Most wouldn't even know exactly what had happened all those years ago as the town had been decimated by his hand and burned, there had been few survivors, just enough to pass down the horrific event of a mislead and powerful general who freed the creature that once ravaged the Planet. Just enough, the others had only heard the tale second-hand. Pity. They really should know first-hand, it was a much better learning experience.

Sephiroth landed lightly at the broad stairs leading up into the Reactor. The piece of shit was still being used despite what had happened here. Maybe the bodies would still be there though… He reached out with his mind to sense if any of the experiments were there as he climbed the steel stairs and noticed there were a few in the pods before Jenova's chamber. As he kicked open the heavy door he laid the withered form of Jenova against the wall and went to inspect what he had to work with. There were a few unfinished bodies, not completely developed. Cross those off the list. His cold calculating eyes went to the next levels of pods and found that there were two almost perfect specimens. They were cat-like and humanoid in form but un-breathing. He grabbed them both by the scruffs of their necks and hoisted them into the air for further assessment and found no fault with either.

_Perfect and fucking easy,_ he thought as he carried them to where Jenova slouched. Her eyes flashed with anticipation as he laid them side by side at their feet before laying Jenova beside them.

He raised his black gloved hands above and to each side of him as if in offering and closed his eyes, his chiseled face lifted towards the steel above him, a faint smile spreading across his lips. Pale green energy swirled around him and the three bodies lying in a row on the floor at his feet and when he opened his eyes they were glowing like twin, green stars of fire. His smiling mouth opened in a cruel laugh that thundered throughout the Reactor, causing the very foundations to shake combined with the now tornado of energy swirling about the room. Then there was a flash and he was on his back in his same clothes by a female with his features. He turned toward her groggily to see her cautiously sit up and open her eyes. Violet eyes.

"We are back Jenova…" he whispered, still smiling.

She returned the smile and inspected her long arms and slim body. In a hesitant voice she spoke, "I have my old body back… this is what I looked like to the Cetra so long ago before my slumber…" she returned her gaze to the man beside her. "Thank you… I won't let this go wasted, we will bring the Planet to her knees."

Sephiroth stood and helped her to her dainty feet. "Of course, Jenova."

He turned and exited the Reactor with Jenova at his heels. They walked with their heads high and their backs straight, confident. Sephiroth paused as they passed the pass to the old abandoned Mansion and came up on the Outskirts of Nebilheim and looked sideways at Jenova. She tilted her head up at him.

"What are you planning?" she asked with a knowing smile.

"The new townspeople should know what really happened to their precious town a long time ago, it's a real pity most only know the story and I'm sure the veteran townspeople will love a recap. What do you think, Jenova?" he simpered with a smirk as Masamune materialized in his hand.

Jenova had a lethal whip materialize in her own, all barbed metal woven in a yielding leather. "I think I should add accents to the story with my new weapon, what do you think of it?" she held it high before cracking it down.

"It can be a nice touch, now shall we?" he gestured forward with his right hand as he gripped Masamune harder with his left.

They walked calmly through the wooden frames of the entrance to the town and smiled at the paused people before them. Some shook their heads at the sight of the tall man and already began to run and shout that this was the demon man who burned the town before, their warnings went without comprehension as the others just stared blankly at what they hoped hadn't been what they'd heard and read about. Jenova leapt at the opportunity and cracked out her whip to cackle as it bit through six people near her, two of them cut clean in half to fall in jerks to the ground that sucked up their red blood. Sephiroth joined not long after as he slashed his katana so that an arch of bright blue leveled a row of houses against the rock face and sliced and diced any humans or animals in its path. This time, there would be no survivors. The blood sprayed from bodies, spurting up in little miniature fountains as the pressure within the bodies was released by still and leather. Sephiroth shot forth great balls of fire from his Firaga, the rebuilt wooden homes and shops once again bursting in flames, crumbling under the intense red and orange heat. Evil laughter filled the dense smoky air as they danced amongst the flames like angels of death, their perfect faces twisted in glee as blood ran crimson into the parched earth until only one was left.

Sephiroth calmly walked through the already black, charred remains of the Inn to the last living resident of the mountain town of Nebilheim. His catlike irises narrowed to thin slits against the glowing of his eyes, the eyes of a hunter closing in on his prey, toying with it while ready to strike whenever he was bored with it. He stood over the crawling, desperate form of the martial art trainer and guide of the surrounding mountains. He vaguely remembered a girl, apparently a past student of his, that led him to the Reactor where he found Jenova that fateful day when he was called forth by his destiny. She had survived that night as this one had, even at such a close range. This time he would carve his body to the point that if he did miraculously survive, he wouldn't consider it a miracle. This thought brought a fresh smile to his thin lips as he raised Masamune, eager to bring the dark fantasy to life. The body turned to look up at him and the ex-general noticed the ruby sheen of trickling blood from the teacher's cracked lips. In his dark brown eyes he saw the acceptance of death already there.

"You were here… before… you did this those many years ago… Sephiroth!" the body accused.

Sephiroth grinned in response and set Masamune for the piercing of his prey's heart.

"You are no Hero, no Great General, no SOLDIER First Class! Our town disliked your kind, but that other First Class that was with you… he was a Hero!" he winced as he awaited the blow.

Sephiroth's grin twisted into a scowl. "Zack? He was as foolish as the rest of you. He had a chance to be great but he chose the path of the Planet as you all did. Death."

The man's eyes widened in alarm at the realization of what Sephiroth said, the death of all life on the Planet and thus the Planet itself. Sephiroth brought Masamune down and grinned in satisfaction at the clean, noiseless cut of the blade as it sunk past the flesh and bone and into the loose soil before being retracted and whipped clean on the man's soiled white button down and black overalls.

He turned to see Jenova perched on a heap of rubble in the middle of town, her features alight with the flickering glow of the raging flames as they ate up the town and its inhabitants. As he stepped toward her she turned slightly and he looked up at her as her simple white gossamer gown billowing around her in the swirling heat. She looked every bit the avenging angel of death with that whip coiled around her waist like a belt. Sephiroth joined her and they scanned the remains of the town that was the home of Sephiroth's secret beginning and Jenova's prison for so long.

"It's done." She whispered, looking up at him. "Where will we go now?"

He detected the eagerness in her voice. She wanted revenge as much as he did although for a different reason. She had been cheated out of consuming a race and sucking the Planet dry before moving on to another populated planet. He was lied to and used as a weapon by a foolish race and denied the chance to enter the Promised Land with his beloved. His cold eyes looked down at hers. "We go to where the puppet still stays and pay him a heartwarming visit. I'm sure he'd love to see us again."

Her pretty mouth turned up in a smile as she flexed her long fingers in anticipation. "He probably wouldn't even recognize me, he's only seen my degraded form."

"He really should see the new and improved us, no more weak remnants, he will face us for the power we really are. No more holding back." He stretched out a gloved hand to his side and his single black wing burst from his shoulder blade. With his other arm he scooped Jenova close against his body and with a powerful downward thrust of his wing, shot up into the dark night.

He levitated there for one last glimpse of the now ruined town of Nebilheim and grinned, his face a landscape of shadows from the fire. "Jenova, just as this damned town has burned to the ground beyond reconstruction, so shall the very Planet in all her damned glory. The whole world shall burn and the air will ring with the cries of our enemies. Do you like the sound of that? Does that please you?"

His little passenger looked down at the fire then up at his shadowy face, his eyes glowing with bloodlust. "That pleases me to no end. But what of that girl you pine for?"

Sephiroth looked down at her surprised.

"Your heart may be tainted but there is an untouched spot where she lies. You love her do you not? Your heart will never be black because of that, no matter how close you get."

"I suppose not. She is something special though. She is already waiting for me in the Promised Land where your old enemies lie at rest. She will be my queen, my goddess who shall rule the new world beside me." He smiled. She was his little saving angel as she had been to all she had known in her life.

"Then we shouldn't keep her waiting."

080

Cloud parked Fenrir behind the bar and pushed up his riding goggles, a smile on his face. He dismounted and pushed open the back door and slowly counted to two as two little bodies barreled down the wooden stairs.

"Cloud!" they both screamed with overjoyed faces and little arms outstretched.

"Hey, Denzel and Marlene! Do you know where Tifa is?" he greeted them as he knelt down to hug them in his strong arms.

Marlene pushed her face away from his chest long enough to nod, "She's behind the bar cleaning the glasses." Then she nuzzled closer.

Cloud laughed at the nuzzling children before disengaging and walking over to enter the area behind the bar. Tifa was busy with the portable phone pressed between her shoulder and her ear while she whipped a tall glass free of smudges. She turned and smiled at him before finishing her call and planting the phone on the gleaming counter.

"Hello, Cloud, how are you?"

"Good, Tifa, I'm good."

She smiled. "I'm just glad it's all finally over, everything is somewhat normal again."

Cloud's eyes darkened as that last battle flashed through his mind's eye. Sephiroth, his temporary body used up, levitating above him with that dark wing spread wide. _I will never be a memory…_He couldn't help feeling that it wasn't over and that it never would be…

Tifa wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek on his chest. "Cloud, I know you may not ever be able to accept that it's over, but you have to. He's not coming back again."

"He was supposed to remain dead that night in the Reactor. But of course he survives the fall into the raw Mako, of course he comes back from the pit of the Planet. Then he comes back after we killed him ourselves... How can you explain either of those Tifa? He told me that he would never be a memory…"

"And he's right as long as you let him be." She protested as she let her arms fall and stepped back to frown at him in worry. "He's gotten into your head but you don't have to let him thrive there anymore than you want him to. Let him go. We have."

Marlene and Denzel poked their heads around the door and looked from both adult's faces. They leaned a little too far and the door creaked on its hinges, catching both Cloud's and Tifa's attention. They both turned their eyes to the cringing children and glanced back at each other, a silent agreement to drop the topic until later. Tifa returned the now spotless glass to the shelf under the counter and bent down with a smile on her face.

"So, you guys ready to go to the church with Cloud and me?" she asked, reminding Cloud of his promise to spend more time with the children.

They both eagerly nodded and followed Tifa through the small swinging door to the dining room of the bar. She looked over at her childhood friend. "Come on Cloud, maybe Aerith will have some words of wisdom for you." she knew Aerith's presence could sometimes be felt at her old church and she also knew that Cloud continued to go there to feel it or talk to her for comfort and to continue to ask forgiveness despite the fact it had been a few weeks since the attack from Sephiroth's remnants. He just couldn't let the past stay in the past, he always suspected the silver haired evil to be lurking in every shadow, no matter how small it was. But what stayed with him most was that he had failed his friend and taken his place in life, thinking he was what he always wanted to be but never could, so he had to steal it from his best friend. He couldn't accept that he fulfilled his promise even though he claimed both Aerith and Zack had told him everything was alright. He had lived too long with it never being alright, ever since childhood. She frowned as she remembered their hometown and his friend Zack. She had liked him, he was kinda like Cloud with his eager to please and protect those who couldn't defend themselves attitude. She wished her last words to the SOLDIER had been different than that she hated them all, but he understood and he still cared about her and the town to try to stop Sephiroth, weakening him enough in his delusion so Cloud, in a burst of fed up strength, could plunge him over the edge into the pit below. "Cloud, they couldn't be saved but at least their deaths weren't in vain. And that was because of you and they knew that. The children are waiting… let's go."

He nodded stiffly but she knew it wasn't him throwing the past behind him, it had just become too heavy to bear that his life's balance had become disrupted and now he couldn't go on with normal life without it. It saddened her. Her childhood friend was buried under that burden and now only little bits of him shone out from all the dark, there was so little light left.

They walked from the bar and Tifa and Cloud hung back as Marlene and Denzel skipped and raced ahead, weaving between the bustling bodies of Slum life. Tifa kept glancing at Cloud and noticed he had returned to his stoic self once again. She had really thought he had moved on… She turned back to what was ahead of her and saw they had reached the church, one of the doors swung open by the children who must already be inside. They climbed the shallow steps and entered the church to find them kneeling on their knees by the flower patch that had resurfaced from the healing pool, the water making the lilies grow back hardier and as beautiful as ever. The church had returned to normal like it always had been. As she walked down the aisle of pews, at least what was left after her fight with Loz, she stopped as a warm calming sensation swept through her and she smiled. She was here. Marlene and Denzel seemed to notice it too as they both looked up from the plants at their feet and turned to look at the other two.

"It's her!" Marlene cried with a wide smile. "She's here again!"

Tifa nodded once with her own broad smile. "She sure is, and she'll always be watching over us. She's the Angel of the Slums, bringing hope and happiness to all who see her or feel her presence. You know what that means?"

Both children leaned closer so they wouldn't miss a word.

"Everything will always be okay in the end. Especially if we hang in there together." They smiled and looked past her to Cloud who was now right behind her.

He looked up at the hole in the rafters and sighed. That was where Zack had told him his mentor Angeal had sent him crashing down through the roof to land in the flower bed before Aerith and their relationship budded and bloomed from there on out.

_But that wasn't entirely true now was it, Zack? She met Sephiroth soon after and fell even harder for him than for you. He came here more than you did, didn't he? He knew about you and her, even though he never told you directly, didn't he? Did you know? Did you know that he would wait for her here while you flirted with the personnel at ShinRa? Did you know that she went to him after she had spent a little time with you? Did you know that you always running around that she was always sent closer to him? You probably didn't, but I suppose now you do. She could never lie, especially to you. I'm sure she told you that day when you both helped me with that fight… Tell me…is it really over? Will it ever be over? _Cloud thought to himself. Even if it was over, will he ever let it be over? Even if it was over physically, he knew it would never be over mentally, that darkness will always be there to follow him. His own little shadow of death, failure and remorse. _Damn him! Damn him to Hell and let him burn there forever like he burned our hometown and townspeople! Let him scream in agony that I have felt for years as he is tortured by an evil darker than he is just like he tortured me! Most of all, don't let him slip past that evil again, don't let him come back...leave him in the memories of fire and destruction and pain and leave him to burn._

_**Please review =)**_


	6. What Hurts the Most

**Forgiveness**

_**Purely fan made all rights to Square Enix for the characters.**_

**What Hurts the Most**

Aerith was more than aware of the blonde's thoughts and it pained her that he was still touched by the darkness of his past. It hurt that she could only do so much. She wished she could be there for him, not as the way she could appear to him now from the Promised Land, but in breathing flesh and bone. A form she could show him that everything was really okay.

But she wasn't the only reason he dwelled in the shadows of his past, was she? No, her first love and his best friend had been the first, before he had even met Aerith. Before he had known of their involvement with each other, but now he knew their story and he felt even more pain for having let his best friend's love fall by their shared enemy's sword. She could only try to understand his suffering.

Tifa sighed from beside the warrior and smiled reassuringly at the two children they had taken here before turning her worried red eyes back to her childhood friend.

"Cloud… talk to us." She quietly pleaded.

"I want him to stay in Hell, to be chained in the forever burning pit where not even he could drag himself out of. But he'll keep coming back won't he?" Cloud spat, a hot tear falling from his Mako blue eye directly to the worn wood floor of the church. More wet spots darkened the pale wood.

Aerith silently glided over and reached around her friend to wrap her arms around his torso.

At her faint touch he jolted but remained where he stood.

"It's her, isn't it?" Tifa asked, even though she knew the answer.

"Aerith…" Cloud started but stopped. He didn't know what more to say to her, what more to apologize for. She had brushed it all aside anyway and even laid shocking news on him about her love triangle back when he was a foot soldier and hadn't known her.

Aerith frowned and shoved him slightly, sending him stumbling backwards to the entrance of her church.

Tifa's eyes widened and she took a hesitant step toward him but stopped as he was continually shoved by an unseen force. "Cloud?"

The flower girl turned and touched the fighter's shoulder and smiled as understanding calmed her down. Tifa nodded and turned back to the two children, leaving the flower girl to help her friend.

Aerith went back to getting Cloud outside and once that was accomplished she shut the doors and shimmered into a physical body. Her frown returned as she addressed him.

"Cloud, why do you still mope around? Zack and I know what you went through, he was with you since the day he was gunned down."

"You knew about that, the whole time?"

"Some part of me did, yes. It pained me but I knew he had just moved on elsewhere and that I would definitely see him again. Now, don't change the subject." She scolded.

"But, I just can't believe he's gone… he keeps coming back." Cloud protested.

Aerith sighed and crossed her arms. "Only if you keep letting him. He's not coming back, Cloud, ever."

"He's in the Lifestream for good now?" Cloud asked hopefully, his eyes brightening slightly.

Aerith felt icy fingers close around her heart. No, and unless he accepted his fate he never would be. "Yes, kinda. There are no more remnants left, right? And Jenova was destroyed, remember. How can he come back if those cells no longer exist on the Planet?"

Cloud shrugged. "I guess he can't. That's a relief."

"Now are you going to enjoy the life we fought for? What Zack and I died for?" tears misted her eyes.

"Neither of you should have died, you should be living it with me."

"I was always destined to by Sephiroth's actions and ShinRa's, Zack made his own and if he hadn't you might not be here." She reminded him.

"But if Sephiroth had never done what he'd done in Nebilheim then everything would have turned out differently, right?"

Aerith nodded sadly.

"Life would have been normal and ShinRa…"

"Wouldn't have come down the way it had but you might have seen your childhood friend with AVALANCHE on the opposite side of the battlefield, how would you have felt then?"

"She joined because of what happened with Sephiroth." Cloud said with hatred. "She and I had big dreams for me to be successful in SOLDIER, but I guess I never had what it took."

Aerith nodded. It was true, without the feelings for his hometown and his wounded friend, Cloud would have probably ended up dead as a door nail matched against Sephiroth's unparalleled strength. She would have never met him but then again he wouldn't have been fighting if his town wasn't burned and his friends and family killed or threatened so it was all tied together, wasn't it? And even after the incident, he was injected with some of Sephiroth's cells and given a part of Jenova inside him as well. If he tapped into the dormant power he could even sprout a wing and become more powerful. Aerith had been able to cure away the Geostigma with her healing rain but the cells were still there, a separate infection.

"I don't even know… how I can move on from everything that's happened. I'm not who I was anymore. I don't know who I am." He whispered, he sounded like a child without his mother and what a fitting role for the flower girl to play.

Aerith wrapped her arms around the swordsman and squeezed him gently. "Tifa remembers. If you ask her, I'm sure you'll find that you and he are very different at all. Just a different age, a different history."

Cloud nodded as he hugged her back, surprising the flower girl once again at how strong he was with Sephiroth's cells. It would be so easy for her Sephiroth to corrupt the youth's mind as he had dabbled with before her death. He wasn't so serious then, but now, he could really do him and those he loved damage. Especially with that personal vendetta on taking what was precious to Cloud away.

"Cloud," she murmured in his ear, "never give up hope, never allow for an opening no matter what happens. Don't lower your guard." She moved to release her hold on him but he held her there with his superior body strength. "Cloud, don't…" she begged.

"He's still out there… isn't he?" he asked, although it wasn't entirely a question, was it?

"He never will be." Aerith answered in a hollow tone. "Just like I never will be. Don't you see, it is not only my love that binds me to him, nor our similar alien ancestry, but that we are polar powers of white and black. Where there is light, there is darkness, and Cloud, the closer you get to the light the darker your shadow will become and the greater the danger. You can't just forget your past, you're right about that. You can't let him go unchecked."

"You want me to fight him?"

"Yes… and no. I just want him to be the way we remember him, when the whole world looked up to him. I want _my_ Sephy back. Not what Jenova made him to be. Just don't let him kill you or our friends while he finds his way back, okay?" Aerith pushed away from his chest and looked up with pleading dark green eyes.

Cloud stared down at her for a moment and sighed. "I won't ever let him hurt our friends, just try to get him to go to the light soon."

Aerith nodded. As long as he was going to be aware of the dangers it would be okay here. She couldn't tell him that Seph wouldn't come fully into the light, that the best she could do is subdue him in the Promised Land where he so desperately wanted to be. That even with him happily there with the Cetra where he could learn to not want to be a god, he would always be her polar opposite by nature and the cruel hand of fate. He wouldn't know what to do then. She realized that she was the same when she was living, not knowing the set natures of some things that couldn't be changed. When you were human and living, things could always be changed somehow in some way by someone if not you. Then, nothing was set in stone; nothing was a definite answer, always a percentage. But Sephiroth would always be the black and she the white and they fit each other that way, they completed each other in that sense.

She also realized that even if her Sephiroth never returned and he remained the killing, un-grieving machine that Jenova's craziness had beaten him out to be, that she would also always be there to reign him in if he became too much for Cloud and her friends. He would always be the angel of death and she the angel of mercy. That was what their ancestors had had in store for them long ago.

Aerith wiped her eyes before they could spill over and she removed herself from her old friend's vision, leaving him to re-enter the church and join Tifa and the children as they tended her precious garden. She couldn't stand the lot Fate had cast her and her beloved and the grief of the realizations forced her to her knees as the tears flowed freely down her rosy cheeks. She wrapped her arms around herself as she began shaking under the weight of the fragile drops and ended up curling into a ball on the grime of the Slum floor amongst the refuge of the city. She felt an odd feeling of being where she deserved to be, below the bustling life she was never meant to live, amongst the trash of the world, used and discarded by all. Her father as an experiment of sorts, ShinRa as a potential weapon, Zack to get away from work, her friends to heal and lead them to victory, the Cetra to be a suicide bomber against the spawn of Jenova, and Seph as a reason for his deeds.

As her sobs wracked through her small body she bit down on her fist. She had been so blinded by her nature of healing and caretaking to see how everyone had been using her. It hurt, to know that not only your enemies had tried to use you for their gain but your friends, boyfriend, family and ancestors had been using you as well. No matter what the reason was behind it, it hurt to be used.

080

Sephiroth looked down on the busy and loud city of Midgar from where the Buster blade of his friend Angeal, then passed to his friend Zack, rested in the earth amongst the yellow flowers that together marked his grave of where he had been shot down. Zack had been a good SOLDIER and Sephiroth couldn't help but feel regret for his passing, but the boy had chosen the wrong side at the wrong time, and nothing more could be done for the lad.

His icy mint eyes turned to the pale silver haired woman beside him with the whip coiled around her waist. Her face was lit with zeal for the blood of the people below her and who was he to keep his 'Mother' waiting? But she wasn't his Mother, now was she?

"You will wait here. You've already decimated five other cities." He told her as he searched the dots of energy that were the people of Midgar, looking for a particular engery.

Jenova slouched beside him. "My son, this is where we were headed though, those other towns were my appetizers and this is our main course! Let me destroy it with you, I promise you'll still get a lot of carnage in."

"No. I have personal business to attend to here before it is leveled and as I gave you the body you're in now, you do as I say or die, again. How does that sound? Not only will you once again feel the pains of dying, fell the slow numbing of your body as your life force leaves your body and your warming blood drains, but you don't have the completed and accomplished feeling of joining the Lifestream as it has rejected you before. That is what you'll return to, the grey nothingness of Limbo." He warned her with an evil smile. He knew he was in charge the minute he transferred her life force from the shell of her former body to the experiment that housed her cells. It would be easy to take it all away and she knew it.

"Fine, just don't destroy them without me, okay Son?" she smiled up at him sweetly with a sickening warmth of a shared passion in killing, watching the light of life leave a person's eyes and their red blood spill out around their corpse.

He scoffed and spread his wing as he sensed what he was after in the Slums, Sector Seven. Of course that was where he should have looked in the first place. That was where all of these began.

"Don't hold your breath, I don't make promises to weaklings."

He heard her angered gasp at being called weak, something she hated and he knew it and that was why he said it. That and it that it was true in his case. He didn't wait for her to reply, though, instead he beat his black wing down and rose high into the air into the gray storm clouds. He would come to them in the storm, since his Geostigma was taken out by rain he would bring their disease of his blade with the rain. He thought it was pretty poetic in the way a crazed man came against his life enemies all in the name of his beloved.

Ah, his beloved, Aerith. Just the thought of her in her modest pink dress and jacket with her long neatly plaited braid and aura of innocence made him smile.

Then he thought of that puppet and his eyes darkened. He was coming for her, he was coming for his blood.

"I'm coming for you…" he voiced into the wind as the gale started up, sweeping him along with the bullets of rain towards the dark city.

As the clouds shadowed the city the one winged ex-SOLDIER flew within the darkness until he came to the now deserted streets leading under the Plate, to the Slums, Sector Seven. That was where his prey was, where his prize was. And he was going to kill the puppet once and for all or destroy him utterly and his little whore friend too, then he would take _his_ precious Aerith, _his_ Cetra, _his_ innocent flower girl. She belonged to no one else.

His boots clipped across the dirt and asphalt that paved the sectors roads and walkways, echoing through the empty alleys and hollow abandoned buildings with boarded up windows and doors, blocked off by faded tape that was once yellow. His toe kicked the rubbish and other garbage that lay in his path, he wasn't about to avoid making noise when he wanted his prey to know he was here.

He was grinning and ready to draw blood when the clean rain scented wind carried another scent to his sharp nose. The salty sweetness of tears, and the fragrance of roses and… lilies. Aerith. _Crying_. Why was she crying? The swordsman sniffed the air, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from but not able to, the wind was bringing it in from all directions. There was dirt mingled with the flowery aroma but they were surrounded by dirt and garbage so that didn't help any. He sniffed again, and again, frantic to find his little flower.

He wandered through the shack-like hovels of houses and trails lined with high piles of junk but couldn't find her anywhere. Then he heard her sniffles. His ears, better than his nose in this weather, zeroed in on her location and he really felt stupid. He had been chasing the wind when he should have kept going to his destination. The church, where it had all began.

Joy replacing embarrassment filled his heart and he picked up his pace to sprint to her huddled form. She was untouched by the rain in her little dome of the afterlife. She was shielding herself from the world. Why? The puppet. He had done this, who else could have?

He knelt beside her and gently laid his hand on her shaking shoulder. "Aerith…"

She stopped and her eyes shot open to look up at him with shock and wonder. "Seph…"

080

Cloud stood with Tifa as they sheltered with Marlene and Denzel against the wall where Cloud had camped before from the pounding rain. The swordsman patted Marlene and Denzel reassuringly on their shoulders before heading around the building's perimeter towards where the basket Marlene had somehow dragged along without him noticing, he could only assume he was too preoccupied with his failures at the time, that was full of sandwiches and juice and propped up on one of the pews on the other side of the church.

He skipped around a fast growing puddle and looked down at his reflection, catching the Mako blue eyes and spikey hair, he was reminded of his best friend and sort of mentor Zack Fair. For a brief moment he saw the true SOLDIER First Class in the waters clean cut reflection, smiling in that reassuring smile Zack shot the cadets when he told them he would do anything in his power to get them all back alive from their missions. Then the image faded in a shimmering wave as a rain drop rippled the surface and Cloud was reminded that Zack had fulfilled his promise, at least to him, he had made sure that Cloud lived even if he couldn't save so many, he saved him. He would have been a much better fighter against ShinRa, all he had to do was run and leave Cloud behind, but no he hid his friend and took on the whole Army and took out a good chunk of their numbers on his way out. He was definitely his new role model, not the Wutain War Hero Sephiroth, not anymore.

He quickly walked over and grabbed the straw basket and headed back to where Tifa, Marlene and Denzel were waiting. As he handed the basket over to Marlene he smiled down at the ecstatic young girl and smiled at Tifa as he pulled her close.

Then he heard it.

A soft whisper carried on the wind and rain.

"_Aerith…"_

That voice.

"_Seph…"_

No, she hadn't left, he had come….

Cloud stiffened and his smile instantly faded. Tifa looked around worried and quickly pulled out her fighting gloves.

"Cloud, what is it? Where is it?" she whispered.

"No, you take the children somewhere safer. Go the back way." He motioned toward one of the holes in the wall.

Tifa looked from the hole to the blond beside her. "No, you don't have to do this alone…"

"You have to take care of Marlene and Denzel, remember when Denzel tried to help you before?"

Tifa was about to continue when his comment made her pause. Back when Loz and Yazoo had been attacking the city with their Shadow Hounds and Tifa had gotten slightly hurt, Denzel had stepped forward and almost got gravely injured.

Cloud continued, "And I'm not alone, I never have been remember."

"It's her, she's out there? But then who's the danger?"

Cloud shook his head. "Take the kids and go." He pushed her towards the now curious kids who had stopped their own chatter when they had realized the adults were whispering in grave tones.

Tifa reluctantly nodded and ushered the worried children towards the small opening.

Once they were clear of the building, Cloud drew his sword from its back sheath and headed towards the double doors at the head of the church.

080

She looked up into those beautiful minty eyes, glowing warmly in the gray gloom of the storm, and smiled up at her glorious angel.

"Seph… I missed you." It was _her_ Seph, _hers_, not Jenova's. "I'm so happy to see you."

She lurched from the muddy ground though she was perfectly clean and grabbed hold of her angel's strong, thick neck.

"My little Aerith, I missed you, too. But I'm here now, there's no need to cry…" he wrapped her up in his strong arms and he heard her giggle like a little school girl getting picked up on a motorcycle, full of excitement and happiness and content. He liked that sound. "Make that noise again." he murmured in her hair.

Aerith giggled again and cuddled into her Sephiroth's broad, warm chest. "How did you get to come back? I thought you needed a Reunion with Jenova's cells?"

"The other experiments in the reactor, there are creatures all over the earth with her cursed cells I can mold into the body you know and love." He whispered in her ear with a smile.

"Of course, how could I have forgotten the reactor… and all those discarded experiments…" the more she thought about it the more she had in common with the silver haired warrior after all. Both weren't truly wanted by the world, the race had moved on from their kind and wanted nothing to do with them or their abilities. They were both drawn together by the kinder hand of Fate to see this in each other, a piece of themselves in their two way mirror.

"Now, why were you crying my dearest?" he pressed as he rubbed her rosy cheeks with his gloved thumbs, wiping away the faint streaks left by her tears.

The demi-Cetra shook her head. "I was just thinking about my life. My whole life I had been used in some sort or fashion by everyone I met. My father wanted me originally for experimenting with the Cetra, ShinRa wanted me for a weapon, my friends wanted me for my healing and stopping you, Zack used me to get away from work no doubt." She sniffed and looked down at the muddy grime under her booted feet that she was physically detached from.

Sephiroth shook his head, his long silver bangs brushing against her face as her pressed his forehead to hers. "Zack was a lot of things, including a womanizer of sorts, but he did care for you a great deal. I remember once when we were between missions of finding our friends Angeal and Genesis, he wanted badly to just go and see you. That was one of the many things we had in common."

Aerith smiled up at him and nuzzled his neck, brushing her lips under his jaw. "I think you had a lot of things in common. All besides being identical." She giggled.

Sephiroth growled playfully and kissed her throat, traveling up and down from her jaw to her collar bone. "But we were different in how to please I woman, Fair was inexperienced and liked to flirt with many, I'm a single woman kind of man." He purred into her ear.

"Really? You've been gone a long time since our little meetings here in the Slums, my general, how can I know for sure you've stayed faithful?"

"Well, when you're thought to be dead by the whole public thanks to your former employers and a killing machine, that helps keep a low profile. But you, milady, are an exquisite little flower that anyone would dote upon. How do I know you haven't taken a fancy to someone else before our previous meeting in the living world?"

"I'm the half-Cetra here, I'm pure. You're the swarthy SOLDIER First Class with women throwing themselves at you left and right if you're an enemy of ShinRa or not!" she protested as she fake fought him as he nuzzled into her neck.

"I am the bad boy, aren't I?" he asked with a devilish smile as he licked the tip of his tongue along her throat.

Aerith gasped and looked down at the mischievous glint in his glowing, cat-like eyes. "Sephiroth!" she giggled, "You naughty boy. Hehehe…."

She let him pull her down and kiss her this time. His mouth was gentle, his lips moving gently against hers. She opened for him and groaned as he slipped inside, flicking her own tongue as if in invitation. She tentatively reached into his mouth and gasped against him as he pulled her closer to his hard body and sucked on her, holding her to him.

His hands traveled up and down her back, inching towards her front. There was a nagging at the back of his head but the swordsman ignored it, pushing it back to the back of his mind. Right now he was all about his Aerith and nothing else mattered. As he focused on his precious little flower, it was as if the world, the storm and gale, everything, disappeared and they were the only ones on the Planet.

_**Yay, finally got this posted! Took me forever with the writer's block =/ anyway… please leave a review and thank you for those who have been, they mean the world to me! I'm so happy that this story is as popular as it is (compared to my others) especially since I originally didn't plan it to be this long, only expecting to do a one-shot in the beginning. I guess their story just grew on me and I'm kind of fond of it =) ty to all the readers!**_


	7. I'll Stay With You

**Forgiveness**

_**Purely fan made all rights to Square Enix for the characters.**_

**I'll Stay With You**

Cloud silently cracked the doors to the church open and peered out into the shield of rain being whipped around by the rough winds. It was too dangerous to just walk out there but he could still hear the sounds and they were definitely outside.

He looked back at where Tifa and the children had gone on their way back to the bar and considered waiting the storm out and going to make sure they had gotten through okay. There was a beep from his pants pocket and he pulled out the PHS to see it was Tifa calling him. He quickly flipped it open and answered, not sure how long he'd have the signal with the storm.

"Tifa?"

"Cloud, we made it home okay so I wanted to call and let you know you can do whatever it is you need to before coming home. Something's wrong, isn't there?" she said knowingly.

"I don't know. Someone is out there and they may be hurt, but I can't see past the stoop and stairs to be honest with the rain coming down as hard as it is. I was about to head out but was going to make sure you guys were okay."

"Do what you have to, we'll wait for you to return here. We're proud of you."

Cloud paused and was about to respond when the signal clicked out. He pulled the phone from his ear and stared at the flashing screen where "SIGNAL LOST" scrolled in big, red block letters. He closed it and dumped it back into his pocket before resuming his post at the crack between the doors, blue eyes straining into the dark, trying to put the Mako enhancements to good use, but not seeing thing besides dark silhouettes of junk and buildings.

He heard a loud gasp and threw all his caution out the window, someone was definitely out there and that couldn't be a good thing. It wasn't like you went shopping in this weather.

The old soldier in him took control and he shoved himself from the safety of the church and into the pelting rain drops, shielding his face momentarily from the rock hard droplets before charging off towards where the gasp had sounded from. He stumbled over pile and pile of slick metal scraps and slippery junk and soggy trash, not carrying what got on him as long as he didn't trip.

His boot caught on a pole sticking out, striking hard against his unprotected shin, sending him face first into the muddy grit and sludge of the street.

He spat his mouth clear of the vile substance and pushed himself up on his hands and knees, testing moving his struck leg to see if there were any fractures or strains. Another sound erupted from the gloom close to his right and his head jerked up to see he was by a clearing in the street. That had to be where the person was. He scrambled up to his feet, not caring about the sharp pain in his leg as he raced around the next pile of trash to see two people on the street.

His eyes widened in alarm as he saw silver and brown hair, black leather and pink.

080

Sephiroth paused his exploration of Aerith's body as he felt another presence draw too close for comfort. He didn't break his hold on Aerith's mouth as he opened one pale green eye halfway to flick up to see a blond man standing a yard away or so. He saw the man's features clearly thanks to his Mako eyes and he smirked against Aerith's honey-sweet lips. Perfect!

Aerith pushed herself closer to him, begging more of him and he would have given it to her too, if it wasn't for a certain puppet. Sephiroth gently kissed her to a gradual stop, holding her there before lifting away and looking down fondly at her flushed face. She was so eager for him it made him feel even warmer inside his chest than her usual effect on him.

"Why did you stop?" she whispered, untangling one of her slender hands from his hair to stroke his cheek.

"My dear, we have an audience." He flicked his cat-like eyes back up at the young man gawking down at them.

Aerith looked confused before craning her head further back to see Cloud staring down at her with disbelief.

"Cloud?"

Sephiroth grinned and nuzzled her neck before whispering in her ear. "As much as I was planning to spending all my time on you, my love, I have business to attend to with the puppet."

He pushed himself from her, untangling their legs from their heated moments on the grimy street. Then he rose slowly, carefully combing out the tangles in his long silver hair and flipping his bangs from his eyes. He fixed Cloud with an amused stare and smiled over at him.

"Well, well, well Cloud, I was just on my way to see you. Of course," he smiled down at Aerith who had sat up in a more appropriate position and started to arrange her hair and clothes back to how they were supposed to be, "I was happily interrupted." His voice came out in a throaty purr that had Aerith flushing all over again and Cloud gagging.

The blonde's blue eyes fell to her dark emerald hued eyes. "What were you thinking! And out in the middle of a storm like this!"

She gazed up at him like he had just popped in to say 'hello, how's it going.' "Well, as you can see the weather of this world doesn't affect me in my form so I'm still dry."

"Are you now?" Sephiroth purred again, flashing her with a seductive grin that turned her cheeks red.

Cloud ignored the tall ex-general and shook his head at the demi-Cetra. "I can't believe you, how can you? Loving him in your head is one thing, but physically is another thing entirely. What do the other Cetra think?"

"They don't mind, they know the past and the present and how I feel. They know how we feel. They accept it, why can't you?" she asked him with a hurt expression as she stood and patted her dress down.

"Aerith, why don't you go see your mother for a bit? Cloud and I have some catching up to do." Sephiroth said as Masamune appeared in his left hand, gleaming as the rain ran down the shining blade, ready to be replaced by crimson blood.

Cloud raised his large sword and set his jaw, prepared for the dark angel's attack. But Aerith wouldn't just stand by this time.

"No, you don't have to do anything, Seph. Just leave him be and let's go elsewhere, to Limbo perhaps or a meadow or someplace nice and private."

Sephiroth looked down at her lovingly. "My beloved, that is exactly why I love you so much, so willing to avoid conflict. But this can't be avoided for it was started long ago as you know. It's time I return the favor of killing him as he did me, only he can't bring himself back now can he?"

"Please don't, you don't have to prove anything. You're perfect to me, isn't that enough?" she pleaded, lightly gripping his leather clad arm.

The former general shook his head. "It is enough but I can't have people going around thinking that in a fair fight with no one else involved that a whelp like him that couldn't even make the cut for the SOLDIER Program can kill the most powerful man to ever live! He got lucky and now Jenova isn't here to interfere with my head, a level playing field don't you think Cloud? It's more like you have to prove yourself, so prove your true worth to me in my own body and you still have the enhancements of my own cells. I can feel them inside you. But don't worry, I won't use them against you, I won't need to." He dashed forward in one fluid motion, the toe of his right boot inches from the ground, with his Masamune swinging in a deadly arc.

Cloud barely had time to raise his sword in a weak block, sliding back through a wall of junk into a larger clearing. He pushed against the flat of his blade with all his might and managed to deflect the attack, Sephiroth flipping backward into the air to land lightly on the peak of an abandoned shack's roof.

"Is that all you have left, Cloud? Where did all that new strength go? Don't tell me it was Kadaj's sorry excuse for a body supplement that had you winning last time we danced the dance of blades. That'd make this less fun." He laughed and lurched forward again, swinging the long katana high to come crashing down from above.

Cloud made a better block this time but was still forced down into a wide crater as the force of the blow cracked the weak concrete and asphalt around his spread feet.

Aerith climbed over the heap of junk they had blasted through and covered her mouth with her hands, at a loss of what to do now. She wasn't in the form required to supply assistance to either warrior and by the looks of it, Cloud wouldn't get lucky this time around.

"You don't deserve to live! I don't know what Zack honestly saw in you, you can't fight, you can't protect, not without someone else's help. He helped you all along your journey against me, didn't he? That and your friends were always there. That girl Tifa Lockhart is a better fighter than you! She even survived my blade, she's strong while you are weak. You were barely useful as a puppet at that so why don't you just crawl into a hole and die?"

"Never! I'll never just let you win, I will always fight! And I am strong, my will and love for my friends is what keeps me going and never staying down no matter how many times you strike me to the ground!" Cloud growled up at the smiling swordsman.

Sephiroth pushed down harder, causing the young man beneath him to grimace.

"I believed I found a way to take what is most precious to you, and I _will_ have the pleasure of taking it away. If it is everything you cherish, then it is everything you will lose!" Sephiroth declared with an evil grin and bright eyes.

"How?" Cloud gasped, starting to give into the pressure of the swordsman's attack.

"You have a part of me inside of you still, the Geostigma wasn't the only thing of Jenova plaguing your body thanks to the experiments of ShinRa and Hojo. You have S cells in your system just as Zack had from your extended time in that old manor. With more darkness within you, the Lifestream won't accept you, leaving you without those you care for."

"You won't put any more of you in me!" Cloud screamed as he finally pushed the cackling silver haired swordsman away, breathing heavily as he assessed the leather clad elite.

"Who said you had a choice?"

Aerith ran forward and threw herself on top of the former general and clung to his waist tightly.

Cat like eyes locked onto her slight arms around his torso and Sephiroth turned to look down at her determined eyes.

"What?"

"That's enough! Please, don't harm Cloud any more, just be happy with me. Please Seph?" he burrowed her face in his back and screwed her eyes shut, a tear dangling from her dark lashes.

Sephiroth paused and lowered Masamune. "Fine, I will not hurt him anymore, I'm surprised he's still standing as it is with how he stood up against my attacks."

Aerith peered around his arm and assessed her old friend. He was heaving, dragging in every breath with more effort than should have been needed.

"Cloud!"

Sephiroth wrapped his arms around her and he spread his single black wing elegantly in the surrounding dark, the feathers gleaming as the water ran through them.

"Let us go, my love."

Cloud grunted and staggered toward Sephiroth, with intentions to keep fighting until he fell to the ground, even if Aerith had gotten the older swordsman to put away his weapon.

"Sephiroth!"

A flash of silver streaked down from above, stopping the blond swordsman in his tracks, his heavy sword clattering to the ground.

The rain stopped, the drops gradually slowing and the winds receding as the struck warrior gaped up at the parting clouds where the sun beams shot down to the soaked earth below. Blood gathered around the base of his neck, a thin line of crimson that grew as the blood responded to the lightning fast strike.

A woman with long silver hair and amethyst purple eyes flicked the reddened whip back into its coil and smirked at the dumbstruck young man.

"My son, you could have killed him just as easily if you hadn't listened to and obeyed that girl. Why, if I didn't know you better, I'd say she has you wrapped around her finger." Jenova said in a cool voice, a pleased and amused smile on her pale lips.

Sephiroth scowled at the Calamity from the Sky and held Aerith to his chest, blocking the unnecessary gory image from her shocked vision.

"Jenova, that was unnecessary to do in front of her. I didn't want you involved with this private matter."

She shrugged. "I feel better now because of it, now put that girl aside so we can move on to Midgar."

Sephiroth was about to protest when they all froze in place. His eyes darted around as everything washed out, all the color draining away and the definitions of their surroundings fading out until everything was white and bright around them.

Aerith stepped back shakily and shook her head, realizing what was happening and not wanting it to be true.

"No…no. No! Mother, why?" she cried out as Sephiroth and Jenova started fighting their invisible bonds holding them in place, their eyes wide and faces tight in fear.

Ifalna appeared beside her daughter, the other Cetra taking shape beside the two silver haired figures still frozen in place.

"He brought Jenova back to the Planet with ill intentions towards the Planet and your friends. Cloud is dying now because of his actions and there is nothing that can be done. He will not change my daughter, no matter how much I care for your happiness and feelings toward him. He has chosen his path and this is where it has led him." She nodded toward the Cetra as they surrounded the two and prepared to perform some ancient spell.

Aerith shook her head defiantly and ran up to cling to the leather clad swordsman. He looked surprised and tried to shake his head.

"Aerith," he managed through his tight jaw, "get away! They're going to kill us, I won't allow you to die with us. What will happen to you? You're already dead because of me as it is, this spell will probably annihilate you completely so that you instantly join the energies of the Planet or who knows what."

She shook her head against his exposed chest. "I'm not leaving you! I never abandoned you before, even as we fought each other on different sides, you're special. You'll always be the general that bought flowers from me and made time for me and always came to see me no matter what business you had. I love you more than anything. Zack may have been my first love, but you were my true and final love and nothing shall come between us! I still have hope for you to change…. You have to for us to be together forever in the land the Cetra have discovered for Man when they die. It won't be Paradise without you." she whimpered, tears falling freely down her rosy cheeks.

Ifalna raised a hand, pausing the gathered Cetra and Sephiroth before he could contradict Aerith again.

"Warrior, you will not change her mind and I will not allow her to destroy herself. But you cannot be allowed to pillage the Planet with your revenge. You will be held here, with no way of escape, after Jenova is annihilated into nothingness. This is what your love for each other has persuaded me to grant you and be glad you are getting this at all." She turned to look down at Aerith, who was blinking up at her like she was Gaia herself. "Aerith, you will be able to come and go as you please. He will remain here until the darkness in his heart is completely removed though, and there is little revenge and hatred hasn't tarnished. He isn't entirely the man you used to know anymore."

Aerith nodded. "But I have faith in him." She murmured, not unwrapping herself from his torso.

Jenova struggled faster, putting all her strength into getting free, her eyes widening in pure terror as the Cetra closed in around her, their arms raised with fingers splayed. A foggy white light radiated from their palms, forming a shimmering ring above her.

"What are they performing Mother?" Aerith asked quietly, still latched to Sephiroth who was also watching the process in a mix of terror and awe.

"It is a purifying incantation to banish all the darkness within a being. Every living being has some darkness though and must always have a tiny bit within them. With it gone, they lose everything that makes them their own person. Without it, they are completely devoted to good to the point they care not for themselves whatsoever. We all must have a little to make sure we have what we need, but only a little. Even you and I have it within us for if not our nature would guide us to give all we had to those in greater need to the point we would wither away." Ifalna explained as the light grew brighter and brighter, Jenova already screaming in agony. "Jenova is all darkness though, a being only concerned with consuming the life force of planets. Pure evil."

Aerith buried her face in Sephiroth's shoulder as the screams intensified. She shook as sobs racked through her, even though they fell over the demise of an entity of pure evil that had been the death of her ancestors. It was still a life. She felt her mother's hand pat her shaking shoulder and she looked up to see her own tears silently gliding down her face. Their nature didn't allow them to be heartless.

Finally the screams abruptly ended and the white was filled with silence once again.

The Cetra lowered their hands and breathed heavily, righting their robes and disappearing one by one until it was just Ifalna, Aerith and Sephiroth in the expanse of white light.

Sephiroth jerkily regained his own mobility, his arms once raised to attack Jenova now falling to his sides and his chest expanding repeatedly as it gulped in more and more air. He instantly wrapped his arms back around Aerith who smiled up at him, blinking her tears clear of her eyes, shining with joy. She turned to her mother and cuddled closer to Sephiroth's chest.

"Thank you so much, Mother, I don't know what I'd do if he was gone for good." She murmured happily.

Sephiroth nodded to the older Cetra. "I am forever in your debt for sparing me for Aerith."

She nodded, her eyes already clear from the destruction of Jenova and her face stoic of emotion towards the swordsman before her embracing her daughter.

"Spend your time here well, warrior, you have much darkness shadowing your pale light. I truly hope Aerith can draw it forth from you. She is happier when you are with her and not being destructive, you know." With that, Ifalna left the pair in the white.

080

Cloud saw the three figures around him disappear, leaving him in the drenched area somewhere in the Slums. Aerith, Sephiroth and who was apparently Jenova, left him to die. Tifa was with the children and as much as he wanted her to be with him when he passed on he didn't want her or the kids to see his life blood spilling out from the wound in his neck.

He didn't have enough energy for a Cure to work and assumed he'd lost too much blood as it was to be saved and healthy. He only hoped that Tifa and the children would be alright.

He hadn't been that good of a father to the children and not a very good friend to his friends and just horrible to Tifa, always pushing everyone away, especially her. And now he finally had what he'd wanted, to be alone, but now he didn't want to die alone.

He fell back and let his legs stretch out before him, splaying himself to the heavens. He vaguely remembered seeing his best friend in the same exhausted expression as he stared up to the heavens, leaving himself to the angels.

He saw a smiling face descending down toward him and narrowed his eyes, trying to make it out.

"Zack?" he whispered with a sob.

His friend reached down with another man similar to him with pure white wings reaching for his other hand. They both gently pulled him up to the heavens and the glory beyond with kind smiles that promised relief from his pained life.

"Thank you." he murmured, closing his tired eyes for the last time.

080

Tifa looked out the dirt stained window of the bar as the dark ominous storm clouds rolled away to reveal the powder blue sky they had hidden. She looked over her shoulder at the children asleep in one of the booths of the closed bar and smiled to herself at their innocence in sleep when they had seen far more than their years already.

Turning back to the streets on the other side of the window, she bit down on her lip in worry. Cloud should have been back by now.

Just then she felt an icy claw grip her gut and heart simultaneously. This had happened before, right after the Nebilheim incident, when Cloud had been taken and used as a test subject by that ShinRa scientist Hojo.

Cloud was in trouble.

She pulled on her fighting gloves as she raced out the door, locking it behind her and dashing down the streets back to the church.

Her boots pounded into the soaked ground, splashing through oily puddles as she scanned the cluttered streets for any sign of Cloud's chocobo styled golden hair. All she saw was junk and run-down buildings. No Cloud.

Her heart beat frantically in her chest, pounding to be free from her ribcage. She gasped to catch her breath when her cinnamon hued eyes fell on a wall of junk with a hole in it that was recently caused. The hole was in a thick wall of junk so whoever caused it had to have been impossibly strong.

Her eyes widened as she ran over to see Cloud laying down on his back, his eyes faint and his breaths barely there.

He was gone, already at death's door.

She knelt beside him and felt a slight pain on her chest, a burning sensation. She reached up to feel her scar from that night long ago where the then SOLDIER First Class and General of ShinRa's Army Sephiroth, had slashed her with is deadly katana. It was he that had done this, he finally finished what he started those years ago.

She looked around, afraid to see those pale green colored cat-like eyes leering back at her from every shadow she saw but saw only the shadows. He was gone, stopped once again from destroying the Planet. She'd have to see if Aerith came to the church tomorrow and see if she could ask her about it. She felt that the demi-Cetra would know about it, that the former flower girl was tied into this although she was at a loss as to why she would let Cloud die like this.

She reached down and brushed the damp blond bangs from her childhood crush's sapphire eyes, the Mako no longer giving them an unnatural glow. They were almost back to normal. But they still weren't the eyes of her childhood friend back in Nebilheim, that young lively boy had died that night of the Incident to be replaced with the troubled young man who always doubted himself, who always chose to be alone in his sadness.

She scrubbed her eyes with a gloved fist and fell to her knees, bracing herself in the grime over his body. She saw the thin line, clean cut at the base of his throat, wrapping around his neck. That wasn't how a katana would leave a wound, not unless it was execution style. Cloud would have been fighting back though and defending himself if he was in any fight. He would have been extra careful around Sephiroth, especially since he would have been fighting alone.

She needed to speak with Aerith. Now.

She turned towards where the tip of the white church glistened with its coating of fresh rain on its walls and stood shakily. Her hands picked up her old friend and worked his torso so that he was draped across her back, not caring that blood smeared on her from his wound or that blood was still seeping slowly from the thin wound, she couldn't leave him on the streets.

She shuffled towards the white pinnacle of the church with determined strides and fiery red eyes. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.

080

Aerith broke away from Sephiroth and smiled up at him before remembering the blow Jenova had dealt Cloud. How could she have forgotten?

"Oh Gaia, Cloud!" she gasped, her delicate hand going to the base of her throat as she recalled the look of surprise on his face when Jenova had lashed his neck open with her whip. He had never truly faced either Jenova or Sephiroth on even terms, he had always had a little help. But Jenova had been a being not even the Ancients had been able to get rid of completely on the Planet, only to put her in a deep and long sleep. "I can't believe he's actually dead… I told him everything was alright… I lied."

Sephiroth pulled her close but couldn't truly comfort her. It was because of him that the puppet had died and he didn't feel any remorse for his actions, he just wanted Aerith. And a sad Aerith wasn't Aerith at all, she had to be happy. He should have left her to be happy with Zack in the first place, he should have left well enough alone with his disfigured past, she shouldn't have had to put up with any of this. He should have killed everything when she was still happy if was going to do it at all and refuse her calls to him. He should have lived up to his reputation and been the cold and heartless being Jenova was. He was strong and powerful, but still wasn't good enough for the slender demi-Cetra in his arms.

"I'm sorry Aerith. I should be annihilated like Jenova for causing such pain upon you. You deserve better and I should have left you alone." He told her softly as she crumpled against him.

"No! I love you Seph and I always have! I'm glad we had those times together… aren't you?" she whispered, her fingers curling into his leather.

"But we are complete opposites. While we want each other, we shouldn't. I wanted to kill the very Planet, the very Planet you were sworn to protect. We are natural enemies. We should hate each other." he continued, squeezing the shaking girl against him for their last embrace.

"But we don't… even after all you've done… I could never hate you…" Aerith started, trying to look up into his pale green eyes, trying to talk sense into him.

"That is so like you. But the thing is… I hate you Aerith." He said as he squeezed her harder, tears of frustration, twinged with sadness, threatening to fall free of his dark lashes. "You are so pure, everything people should want to be. I am dark, barely the man I ever was and I shall never be like you. That is was draws me to you, we are like magnets. But I am also a man and Man hates what he cannot be or have rightfully. Therefore, I love you, and hate you."

He shoved her away and glared at her, wanting to take her back in his arms as she sprawled on the white ground. "Forget me Aerith, go back to your kind and leave me to hate myself as well!"

080

Tifa set Cloud in one of the old pews, the wood creaking under his weight. She pushed her hair from her eyes with the heel of her hands as she trembled in shock. She still couldn't believe he was dead. He was gone. She had hoped that on her way here he would cough himself awake and blink around, his eyes finally falling on her with soft compassion. He had always made it through the trials they had faced before, but then again they had always had the others, their friends behind them.

"This can't be happening…" she barely whispered as she watched Cloud's pale, limp body, unmoving on the pew with wide eyes.

A soft crying sound tickled her ears, drawing the fighter's attention to one of the rafters above her. A brunette with a pink bow in her hair above her long braid sat on a high rafter, her shining green eyes leaking rivers of tears that dotted her pink dress.

"Aerith.." Tifa breathed, catching the distraught girl's attention.

"T-Tifa?" her green eyes widened at Cloud's body. "Cloud!"

Aerith jumped down to land soundlessly by the pair and collapsed atop the soldier's body.

"Jenova did this! She did this! Not you Seph, not you… she beat you to it…" she mourned between sobs. "Tifa… I'm so sorry… I couldn't stop them. From fighting that is, and then Jenova appeared out of nowhere and killed him."

"Where is she?" Tifa demanded, clenching her fists as she steeled herself for the fight. "I have to avenge him."

Aerith looked up at the choked words. "The Cetra took us up to them and annihilated her, purifying the darkness within. They were finally able to kill her with their combined power in their Promised Land."

"You mention Sephiroth… what about him?"

Aerith stood and frowned at the fighter. "He has been spared. He blames himself for my unhappiness because of Cloud's death. But this was all because of Jenova, he was a puppet to some extent too. But I don't blame him." She looked up at the rafter she had dropped from. "He was up there the first time I met him after my date with Zack. He was so nice and caring…Jenova changed that. He gave me his time even when they were in Nebilheim, up to the point of the incident. I wished he had never come across those books… that Genesis hadn't said those things… that Hollander hadn't left those reports and experiments… Zack, the town and he would still be the same then."

Tifa listened with sad eyes. "Cloud would have been the same too, and I wouldn't have minded. He was good enough without having to make it into SOLDIER. But Aerith, which would you have chosen if things had happened differently? Zack or Sephiroth?"

Aerith smiled warmly at the memories of before, when Zack would come and see her and the Mighty General too.

"Zack was sweet but he flirted with so many. Sephiroth was the one that cared more about me, even though I wear the ribbon Zack bought me in memory of us. I would choose Sephiroth. He needs me more, even if he doesn't realize it."

Tifa nodded, her eyes falling on Cloud again. "I wish things had turned out differently then. Is Cloud alright though…on the other side?"

Aerith laid her hand on the swordsman's chest with a sad smile. "He's with Zack and the others now, waiting for you in the Lifestream until the day it is called to the Promised Land. Be happy for him, his suffering is over now." She turned and embraced the stiff woman beside her and a compassionate hug that told her that they both should be happy though they were sad. "Go back to the children, they need to know he is in a better place and will be watching over you three."

Tifa nodded and returned the hug briefly before picking Cloud up again and heading out of the church.

Aerith looked down into the pool where her flowers once were and sighed. "I'm coming Seph, even if you like it or not."

080

She found Sephiroth sitting with his long legs crossed and Masamune placed in front of him, his gloved hands resting palm down on his knees. She remembered finding Zack like that after he and who she now knew was Angeal, his best friend's death. Repeating her steps back then, she wrapped her arms around him in a hug and rested her cheek against his shoulder blade.

"Seph, I love you." she whispered.

He tensed. "I told you to leave me here, to go back to Ifalna or wherever you go to."

"But I promised to be with you so here I am. I will stay with you, forever and ever until you can join me with the other Ancients. Because I have forgiven you Seph, I did a long time ago. I'll stay with you until you can forgive yourself." She leaned around him to kiss his cheek gently, holding herself there until he couldn't resist himself and pulled her for a deep kiss that rekindled the spark from the floor of the Slums.

Together they whispered against the other's mouth, their lips brushing on the words, "I'll stay with you, my love, forever with you I will stay."

_**So what do you think? Last chapter finally but I enjoyed writing this. It went a long way considering I intended it to be a oneshot =P Please leave a review and I will be forever happy! Thanks for reading ^^**_


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